3
by planet p
Summary: Revised! AU; there's a Triumvirate inquiry into Raines's death... Written in '07. Miss Parker/Sam, Emily/OFC, Emily/Lyle, William/Fulton
1. Chapter 1

**3** by planet p

**Disclaimer** I don't own _the Pretender_ or any of its characters.

* * *

_2003_

"She's a brilliant doctor."

Fulton sat in proper pose, flawless and eerily cool.

"But a damn right bitch to boot."

She had been called to an official enquiry at 1500 hours. It was now 1648 hours. The two men running the line of questioning were Triumvirate-appointed, the remainder of their team of board of examiners watched from behind a sheet of one-way glass.

Parker was among them, appointed independent observer. It was code, for an independent observer to be present in order to ascertain that professionalism was maintained were liability to be questioned. The independent observer was their universal safe-guard.

Parker listened as they questioned several other doctors on Fulton's character, how well she participated in team work, whether she was a valuable and productive member of the Med Team. The questions were endless.

Several techs were assigned the task of digging up whatever they could on the woman's past.

They were thorough to the point of being meticulous. Parker didn't blame them. The woman had potentially had a hand in the death of the head of her department, Medical Unit Director.

It was no secret that the woman had wanted his job. This not being made any easier by the appointment of Dr. J. R. Cox, who was currently Acting Director, having previously been Deputy Director.

Dr. Charlotte Fulton. 40 years old. Born in Hampton Hill, South Dakota. Twenty-third day of the fifth month, the year 1963.

She had spent her earlier years as a farm-hand on her grandparent's property, farming turkeys. An only child, and only grandchild, she had lost her parents at a young age. The official reports went that her father had first shot her mother, and then himself, previously having discovered her in a relationship with another man.

She had gotten a job at the local medical institute as a part-time cleaner and this had led to her becoming a nurse and then a doctor at the age of thirty-seven. She had never been married and had no children. She was the last of her family line and had no surviving relatives.

"Yeah, I can think of one. Cow."

Despite there being no question of fault of her doctorial skills among the general staff, there was, however, a certain amount of consent on the fact that the woman had nil to absolutely no social skills.

"Ungracious pig. Well, you asked."

"Oh, I wouldn't say 'pig', but I wouldn't say human either."

"Are you kidding? Anyone even mentions the word Fulton and half of the Sweepering Department cringes. I mean, the L5s want to, the reason they don't is that trainer of theirs, is all. Going on and on about them all us folks needing to be more disciplined, act like we're part of the human race for once and not some vermin that crawled outta not even God knows where. I'm telling you, that little so-and-so has a mouth alright."

The outstanding public opinion of Dr. Fulton was not a cheery one. The rumours and bets that were going around astounded Parker as to the staff's general maturity. But then, it seemed, that such conduct was normal among the Admins and Sweepers. If Administration was the plague, then Sweeper Space was the ensuing vermin, to borrow a phrase from her so-and-so brother.

"Hey, come on! He treats his L5s like bugs that ought to be stepped on, like you'd be doing a universal service or something. I ask you. And not even he can stand her. Ask him if you don't believe me. That woman is bad news in any sense of the word."

* * *

When Acting Director was asked of Dr. Fulton, he simply replied that she was and had been in the past, "a great contribution to the team here at Med Space" and that all enquiries were "standard procedure, of course" and he was "confident that nothing negative will come of it".

Parker rather thought that Dr. Cox was being mighty careful, and figured that he must really have wanted to keep his job as first-in-command of Med Space, which included in its grasp, the Psych and Laboratory-technology Deps.

* * *

"No. You know, because they said something about liquefaction of the internal organs. I mean, what would she have to have, rays coming out of her eyes?"

The interviewer pressed on. "But he was in Isolation, was he not?"

The nurse nodded and refrained from any further snorting, straightening in his chair. "Yeah. Well, she thought it was something unsavoury, you know what I mean? He was in isolation, you said it yourself. Something like Ebola or some which. You never know what they do down in those labs. I mean, who does. And those Lab-techs – well, Hell! – they say they're worse than us, worse than the Nurses, and – I mean – I know it's all just talk, but even talk's got to stand for something, got to have some merit, innit?"

The interviewer nodded but made no comment.

* * *

"Doctor?"

Dr. Cox lifted his chin slightly. "Yes?"

"You have worked with Dr. Fulton quite extensively."

"I have."

The man nodded. "Then, tell me, how would you describe her relationship with Dr. Raines?"

Dr. Cox stared at the far left corner of the table before redirecting his gaze to the examiner, never quite reaching far enough. "Well, I mean, how would anyone describe their relationship with Dr. Raines? Distant. Perhaps with the exception of very few," he drummed his fingers on the desk and took a sobering breath, "we, um," more drumming, "the general staff, really didn't know all that much about the man. Of course, there were always the rumours, but rumours are rumours, you never know what to believe, and I think that's half the fun of it, isn't it. Trying to find a truth behind a lie."

"I see." The examiner nodded. "You, I believe, are quite good friends with his son?"

Dr. Cox sighed sadly. "Sam? Yes, well, the whole thing there is, I met Sam as a consequence of meeting Lyle. Sam, is, after all, Mr. Parker's secondary."

The examiner raised his chin and slowly lowered it in a knowledgeable gesture. "Ah, yes. Sweeper training. Mr. Raines trains the Level Fives, doesn't he?"

"He does. Along with Lyle."

"And what exactly do you mean by secondary? I, of course, have a rough idea what you are referring to, but it's no more clear to me now than high school calculus." The examiner chuckled at his own joke.

Dr. Cox remained composed. "The thing with Sweeper training is that there is a chain of command. There are several levels a trainee will pass through, the highest being five and the lowest being one. And each level is given two general trainers, the more experienced being primary. So, you see, it's quite simple."

The examiner very nearly winced at the doctor's last sentence, as though if he viewed them in an immature – or even primitive – manner, they would seem less of a threat to him.

* * *

Parker had to fight very hard not to smirk. The examiner continued his questioning, this time targeting Dr. Cox himself.

"When you first arrived here, in the Blue Cove branch, you were appointed under the Sweepering Department."

Dr. Cox nodded in agreement. "That I was."

"Why was that, you think?"

"I had had some unfortunate reviews over in Africa and, well," he sighed, "they sent me here in consequence of reprimand."

"You weren't registered under InDel?"

"No, I wasn't. I was simply employed under the Sweepering Department. It was only later that I received an active transfer to the Med Space, and have been working on Field as an inter-departmental liaison since."

"I see. And why is it that you were transferred from Sweepering."

At this Dr. Cox chuckled. "Lyle really couldn't be bothered to have me as a Sweeper. I believe the word he used was 'lousy'. And there was, as I recall, a reference to his duty as Sweeper Trainer to either find a suitable transfer or withdraw me altogether." Dr. Cox nodded at the sceptical look on the face of the examiner. "Mmm, well, now, he said I was endangering his Sweeperlings and indeed their training. I do believe he is a little biased when it comes to foreign branches, very protective of his own auxiliary. But, who can argue with that? Blue Cove has a fair enough reputation, a few minor glitches with a certain J-A-R-O-D, aside. And a wonderful place to live if the rates weren't so damned high."

Parker narrowed her eyes, noting how the doctor's professionalism had slackened. But comfortable was what the examiners wanted you to be, more likely to let slip something you otherwise wouldn't. If they couldn't have you biting your nails to the bone, they would have you as cool as a cucumber. More comfortable meant more secure which meant more personal. This really was the fun part of interrogation.

* * *

"Yourself and Mr. Parker have become quite good friends, then?"

"Lyle? To a certain degree, I suppose you might say yes, we have. We do have our differences, but then again, who doesn't. I mean, it's Lyle we're talking about. You never ask him 'why' because he'll simply reply 'why not'. It's rather a delicate situation with him. One moment he can be as friendly as anything and next he thinks you're some sort of grrr," he laughed suddenly and took a deep breath to calm himself, continuing, "scary thing, out to get him. Well, you know, internal affairs. They do their job. Hell, that's what they're paid for, and I'd be mighty scared if they weren't. They're there for a reason, and I think that reason is a very good one. There needs to be standards in this business, just as in any other business, or indeed, any other relations, relationships, heck, if there weren't some degree of decorum, well, the world'd be a Hell of a lot of a scarier place."

Parker winced internally. The doctor was losing it.

"It would indeed," the examiner replied. "And Sam?"

"Sam. Yeah. Sam is a great guy." He grinned, his eyes altogether too wide. "Just," he shook his head, "great!"

The examiner nodded mutely.

"Coffee."

"Excuse me."

"I, um, I was thinking about coffee."

The examiner narrowed his eyes.

"Just come off a double shift," the doctor explained, "so I'm not the straightest thinking of people. I dunno, it just seems to play out differently when I've actually got to do something, is all. It all just seems to want to get on by itself, and I just – go with the flow. You know what I'm saying, buddy?"

If possible, the examiner's eyes seemed to narrow farther. "I do indeed, buddy."

Dr. Cox smacked his hand flat on the table. "This is so great that you guys are doing this. I mean, true justice at work." The doctor shook his head. "It's so wonderful. This is the kind of stuff, this is being true to your cause. It's like," he smacked his hand on the table again, "wow! Wow! Is all I can say. I love you guys, man! You're the best! I love your work! I so understand what you're trying to do here. I truly do. And I'm all for a better world."

Dr. Cox pushed his chair back and stood up, holding his arms out as though in preparation to hug something or someone. "Love your neighbour. Love your earth. Love! Love is the thing that truly makes us human, and if you say that a penguin looking after its penguinling is love, well Hell, then the sentiment is human. Because love is universal. Love is what really makes life worth living. And if you don't have love, Hell, what have you got? What is there to live for? I ask you, my friends, love truly is a wonderful thing, and a thing, I think, too few these days, truly, and fully, appreciate. The beauty of love!"

Parker stood in stunned silence and waited with baited breath for three of the Triumvirate Sweepers to come and take Dr. Cox down from his soap box and off to his office.

"Love, my friends, love is the truly beautiful thing!" Dr. Cox recited from being half-in and half-out of the door.

Parker had no trouble in faking her utter shock. The man was certifiable. She hoped someone would take him to get some coffee soon.

* * *

Charlotte Fulton wasn't an extraordinarily tall woman. She was no Malibu Barbie. Slim was not a word that would have applied to the doctor. It wasn't that she was grotesque, because she wasn't. In fact, Parker could imagine her looking quite pretty with the proper attire, it was just a little trying to appreciate with that silly lab coat.

As Parker had heard it, she was a bit of a feminist. Hell, Parker was all for liberation of the female gender, but some feminists, she knew, took the role all too serious, as though they actually were meant some rival to the male gender, which, in Parker's opinion, was utterly ridiculous, despite what she liked to perpetuate. Women were women and men were men. That was how God had made them – whoever, or indeed, whatever, God may be. The problem between men and women really came back to attitude, personality, character. Because they thought they could compare each other literally. It was silly really.

Parker thought it a measure of the repression within society today. Repression of the true nature of any living being, or animal, if one pleased. Life was more complicated than "animal, mineral or plant", but basically speaking the concept was right on the money.

Charlotte Fulton was one who constantly saw the other gender as a personal affront to her. Parker thought it little wonder her spastic brother didn't get along with the woman. Her brother mightn't have had the greatest respect for her gender, but at least he appreciated that they were, and sometimes, she thought, that he might have realised that everyone, no matter their gender, nationality, colour, or preferences, had their not-so-good sides and their better sides. Such moments, however, were most likes limited to how much coke he had snorted. And some people actually wondered _why_ he was brain damaged.

* * *

Charlotte Fulton was surgical about the manner in which she discussed her procedure, and Parker thought that, were Dr. Raines not dearly departed, he might even have been proud of the woman. She was following his example even better than his example in the first place.

Were the examiner to ask a question, or question her conduct, she simply sat patiently and listened. Only then would she counter what had been said.

She had a way of talking herself up and talking the examiner down because he was not a doctor and she was. Parker almost thought that the examiner thought her compassionate that she could understand his inferiority to her, that he was apologetic for his lack of knowledge as compared to herself, almost as if he respected her her superiority.

Parker wanted to go in there and shake the examiner until he came to his senses, but she wasn't sure whether or not he was playing the woman or not, playing on her absolute confidence in her power. The woman was either very stupid or very stupid.

* * *

Parker knew that the Triumvirate would not rest until they found someone negligible. Her daddy would have been less than happy if they did. His little brother was dead, after all.

* * *

The funeral was scheduled for Sunday. It had been raining, as it often liked to do in the middle of winter. Parker was waiting for Jarod to ring her so she could convey the happy news, but so far he hadn't. She was a little disappointed.

* * *

Parker wasn't sure what had made her mind up for her, but it just seemed like the appropriate thing to do. Internal affairs had finally given up on finding any such sinister plot, but Parker wasn't so easily convinced. The woman had to know something she wasn't telling. Parker just had this lingering eerie feeling that there was something she was missing, and she didn't want to think that she was a little depressed that she hadn't been the one to dispose of the good doctor herself.

She felt a little cheated in reality. She had promised her momma she would do it, and now she had missed out on her opportunity.

* * *

(FLASHBACK)

Charlotte turned out the light and slipped out of the tiny storeroom, her mind on what she would be making for dinner and the program she might like to watch on television afterward. She was half a step out of the door when someone grabbed her hand away from the door handle and shoved her inside, flattening her against the wall. She wanted to reach up and rub her cheek where it had smacked into the hard surface and then she wanted to smack whoever had pushed her into the wall across the face, but she wasn't moving.

"Do you think me a complete idiot? You actually believe you could go on doing whichever, whenever you please? Is that what they told you? That you'd be perfectly safe because, hey, who'd ever even think to suspect you? Well, let me tell you something: nobody in this business is above suspicion. And if you're willing to believe that, you're even more of a bigger idiot than I thought. What do you take me for, a fool?"

Charlotte felt her own breath hot on her cheeks and fought to remain calm. "I don't know what you're talking about?" she half-hollered, twisting away from the wall to face her supervisor, her back flat against the hard surface which offered small assurance.

Dr. Raines laughed abruptly. "Oh, hey, hon, no probs. Why don't I just let you get on with your evening then?"

Charlotte scowled, shooting her supervisor a reproving half-smile, not meant in the least friendly, and stepped to one side, in mind of departing present company.

She was three strides into the hall when Dr. Raines called her back. She turned to see him holding out the Manilla folder she had dropped in their earlier encounter. She tilted her head in acknowledgement and leant forward to snatch the folder away, clutching it to her chest. "Sir."

"Be sure and check that out at the Med Space Administration desk on your way out, won't you, hon. If they ask who gave you authorisation, tell them to give me a ring on my extension – 845." He turned and pulled the door shut with a snap. "Oh, and, have a lovely evening, won't you."

Charlotte spun on her heel and swept off. _Stupid patronising git!_

* * *

The dining hall was business as usual when Charlotte came in to fetch herself a coffee. She sighed to herself when she thought of what her supervisor had said not just a few days earlier. He really was going dotty in his old age, same as most everyone with a bit of position. Either crazy as Hell or dotty.

Dr. Cox and Young Mister Parker had been having another pointless argument when she had walked past the younger doctor's office. Pointless because Charlotte doubted that Dr. Cox would have any more success instilling anything in the boy than his own father had. That boy was crazy and that was about the most of it, end of story, full stop. Personally, Charlotte didn't think it would be much of a loss if he died. It wasn't as if he was popular among the staffing, the staff just weren't so stupid as to say what was always on their mind when it came to the spoilt brat. The way Charlotte heard it, humanity would actually be better off without him, and she was of a similar opinion when it came to a certain Dr. Raines. If it wasn't the Pet it was the Pet Master, trouble-makers, the pair of them.

(END OF FLASHBACK)


	2. Chapter 2

Parker sighed and turned the corner, realising where her meaningless wandering had taken her. She stared at the door for a long time before deciding she might just pop in and see if the Nurses had actually bothered delivering her flowers, or just kept them for themselves. They were expensive flowers, after all.

Ducking into the room, she spotted a vase on the bedside table, an instant frown coming to her features. The flowers must have been a week or so old, because they looked as good as dead.

The forty-seven year old heaved a sigh and looked across at her brother. She wondered what he was dreaming about, but then figured that she probably didn't want to know in the first place.

Parker sat down on the bed beside her brother's and snatched up the remote, switching on the television. The only thing that was on was sports so she watched the golf, pretending to be interested, but that was all.

Reagan had been transferred to the California branch a week or so ago, and Parker was feeling increasingly down.

She looked across at her brother a second time and decided she might as well hold his hand for a little while, and sat down on the bed beside him. Dr. Cox had told her he was in a coma, a deep coma. If indeed he was faking it, and subsequently tried anything funny, she would have no more hesitation in shooting him than stepping on a spider. She hated spiders, hated the way they moved; kind of like a scuttle.

Bored, she hummed _Incy Wincy Spider_ under her breath. "So, little brother, what do you think of the flowers? I had gotten you some nice shiny new ones yesterday. But…" She sighed. "Kind of bored now actually. You? You wanna sing _Incy Wincy Spider_ with me?" She laughed suddenly, thinking how crazy she sounded. "Come on, don't be a spoil sport! Do you know the words?" She shook her head.

"Oh well. Doesn't matter. I'll teach you, how does that sound? I'm not the world's best singer, but- Ah, shut up!" She cleared her throat and smiled briefly. "Uh-hum. Incy Wincy spider climbed up the water spout, then the rain came down and washed pour Incy out." She grinned. "I think that's about it. Spec', huh? I know!" She sighed again.

"You know, don't get any funny ideas that your sister's crazy, cos I'm not talking to myself. Talking to you, stupit." She waved his hand about a bit, yawing. "You still haven't told me if you like the flowers or not? So, you know, any time now, could be nice. But hey, no rush, I've got all day to sit around and talk to you about crap like this." She brushed the hair off her face with her left hand – the one that wasn't holding her brother's hand – and tucked it behind her right ear.

"So, tell me about your wife. Someone told me you had one." She let her breath out. "Was she very pretty?" She bit her lip. "I bet she had dark hair." She rolled her eyes, thinking of her brother's choice of secretaries in the past, most noticeably all being Asian. "Well obviously." She squinted, trying to imagine what the woman must have looked like. "And what about one of those cutesy-wootsey little tans, I'll bet she had one of those too." She twitched her nose a bit.

"And brown. Her eyes must have been brown. Surely? Yeah, I like brown. I knew a boy with brown eyes once. I think we were even friends a long time ago. And I still miss him, you know, even after all this time. It's silly, I know. Do you miss her? But then, I guess you don't. You've never told me about her, so I guess you must have forgotten her.

"There's a woman I remember, and she had the prettiest brown eyes, the prettiest you've ever seen because they were always smiling and you always felt safe and loved. She had a daughter, you know, and she had the same happy eyes, but then a bad person came and took the daughter and the happy flew far far away and the woman looked and looked and called and called, but nothing could bring that happy back. So the woman had to go away, and she couldn't come back until she had found that happy and made it come back with her.

"But the happy was far and wide, and the woman found herself lost, such a long way from home. And when the daughter finally returned home, she found her momma was no longer there and she cried and cried until her tears flooded the house and the happy was washed away into the ocean where it sunk all the way to the bottom, but it was cold on the bottom of the ocean, so the happy curled up and fell asleep and soon forgot all about the woman with the happy eyes and her daughter, and that was how the happy stayed away."

Parker looked back to the television where that same golf tournament was still being broadcast. "She was my first friend, you know. She was my friend even before the boy with the brown eyes. But it doesn't matter because they're both gone now, and even though I think about them sometimes, the happiness is gone now, so it just gives me a sore head, and nobody wants to think about something that gives them a sore head. I know I don't, anyhow. What about you, you either?" She sighed and closed her eyes for a little while, just thinking.

"I think I miss you sometimes, miss what we could have had, and there's nothing funny about that. You're my twin, and I know you probably don't understand this, but I miss that. I miss having someone to belong to, and someone I can say belongs to me." She sighed. "Of course you wouldn't understand. How can I expect you to?" She shook her head and stood.

"I don't know what I was thinking. What was lost is lost, and that's the way it must be, because I can't build a time-machine and make it all better. That's just the lesson I was handed, and that's the lesson I must understand. Because how can you understand what you truly had until you've lost it. I think it's like that a lot.

"We're always thinking about how everything could just be that little bit better, never really seeing how it's just fine the way it is, because even though we should never stop wanting for something better, not because of any fanciful ideas to do with getting less than is owed to us, but because without progress society, life, anything you can think of, would fall into stagnation, and things change, little brother, things are always changing, not for better or worse, but changing, so we must keep changing, adjusting, that's just the way things work in order to survive, they evolve.

"Of course, it is not bad to want for more, but it is not good to discount what we have, because what we have is not bad, if we could just see that, if we could just stop and appreciate the now, instead of always thinking of what we may be losing by not rushing, bustling, pushing, hurting. Anyone else exists simply to take us down, not simply as another who just wants to live too, because what right do they have above us, but what right do we have above them, right is not the question, because the next person has as much right as us to live as does that grass out there. We have all come this far, we are all alive, do we not deserve to live?

"Here we are. Look at me. I'm here. I'm alive. I just want what you want. Why do you have to put me down, why do you have to push me aside? There is a time and a place for everything and everyone and this is mine, so let me have my time."

Parker laughed suddenly. "You know, little brother, I think I've just confused myself something mighty awful. Have I confused you too? Yeah, I'm sorry about that. But sometimes – and I'm sure this is a Parker thing, because every time Daddy says half an hour and really means six hours, well, you get the gist – sometimes I like the sound of my voice all too much, and then I just – go on and on until I forget where I started and have to stop and try to find my way back home.

"I miss it, little brother, I miss it so much. I miss having someone to love and someone to love me back. I guess what I'm trying to say is, I miss having a family. Because however distant or complicated we were at times, we were still a family of sorts, and sometimes that is all you need, sometimes that is enough to make it all seem worthwhile, even though you may not think it at the time. But when the time comes when what you had you no longer have, you think back on all that and think that you really never knew that all the while you were wishing for something better you really didn't have something all that bad, because – bloody Hell – you had something at least, and that is better than some others!" Parker sniffed suddenly and leant down to hug her brother.

"I miss him too, you know. Goodness knows I hated him, but I miss that too. Now won't you just wake up? I know we were never the best of friends, but I don't care, I don't even want us to be – goodness no, that would be far too awkward – but I don't care, just as long as we are something. Please, little brother, just wake up and tell me about how you're going to catch the lab rat and then I'll be dead because you'll shoot me. I'm losing my mind and I don't even know how to begin to talk to Sydney. What would I honestly say? I don't know. I can't even imagine what I might say.

"'I feel like an ice-cream. I know it's raining out there in the big wide world, but here in my dinky little world, I feel like an ice-cream. Vanilla. You?'? Could you imagine Sydney's face? He would whip me up a prescription and have me down in Med Space in a wink. 'Go on now, you can do it. That's it, just swallow them. One, two, three, down they go. Very good. Now that wasn't so hard, was it?' You've got just to wake up, little brother; wake up and slap me."

Straightening up, she slapped her brother hard across the face. "Wake up! You ain't just gonna let a girl hit you and get away with it?" She slapped him again. "Wake up and hit me back!" Parker grabbed her brother and started shaking him. "Why won't you listen to me when I'm talking to you!"

* * *

"Parker!" Parker barely even heard the shouting, ignoring it as just some annoying buzzing beeping machine. "Parker, let go of your brother! He's not going to wake up until he's good and ready, and your shaking him half to death isn't going to miraculously induce such a mood!" But Parker wasn't ready to let go.

Eventually, Dr. Cox, along with three other nurses, had to sedate Parker and called Dr. Green on his extension. Sydney was there in no time, expecting that he should be able to just walk out with her, but Dr. Cox put it to him that he wanted Parker prescribed with some sort of mild sedative should she feel the need for something to help her control her moods and that Dr. Green should encourage her to see one of the Centre doctors voluntarily, as if he had to report her – as was mandatory in such cases – she would be forcibly taken if need be, thus leading to a review being lodged and she would eventually have to go before the Triumvirate to assess her value to the corporation.

And there was no doubt in his mind that if Parker were to be subjected to a full psychological assessment by the Triumvirate, Parker would be found lacking and would no doubt, her "value" would suffer. Adding, further, that the medication she would be prescribed would do far worse things to her than the possible Valium any other doctor would prescribe her if she were to see one immediately.

The political situation had been such that, simply being the Chairman's daughter did not guarantee amnesty, and had been for a long time now, it had not, however, been so obvious, owing to the fact that things had simply been handled differently in the past. Some things, for instance, had been overlooked and reports hadn't been quite so pedantic in their recording of things.

It was true enough that security was as good as it had ever been, but it was also true that the Blue Cove branch was not winning at so much these days and a certain amount of censorship had taken place in order to keep them in favour with the Triumvirate, or enough so that they were not liquidated and their research taken elsewhere, as to California or Alaska.

The Tower had appointed such tasks to the Triumvirate only that they were the determined governing body in regard to all such corporations, and thus held no bias in regard to reviews and whose favour would be found, they were simply true to the industry laws. Well, that was the theory anyhow.

* * *

Parker was sent off to wait in Fulton's office for her return, Sydney feeling that Parker may feel more comfortable with a woman of her own approximate age. Parker figured the whole thing had worked out quite neatly, if not a little risky, as she had had enough time to search the woman's office, and it was true enough that she was pissed off with her brother.

Who did things like that anyway? Only crazy people! Unless he had been attempting to gain favour with his daddy by acting suicidal, thinking the Chairman would take pity on him because in some sick way the kid reminded him of his wife, who he had thought until quite recently, to have committed suicide.

Parker figured her brother should have consulted with his doctor friend beforehand, likes then he would be fine by now and not still in that dumb coma. Three weeks and she was still waiting for Jarod to ring. He had to ring sometime. The rat just couldn't help himself. He would find something he would be bursting to tell her, or he would get homesick and ring her so she could tell him something stupid that happened at the Centre so he wouldn't want to come home so much. He had to ring. It was just a matter of time. Then she could be back to insulting him. It was no fun insulting her brother when he didn't insult her back.

* * *

Charlotte Fulton's flat was nowhere near as spiffy as Parker would have imagined. The woman was dressed in a loose pale blue cotton singlet across which little pink and white black-stemmed roses were dotted, and a pair of grey track pants with a white stripe down the side and a drawstring in the elastic. She wasn't wearing any shoes and her toenails were painted an odd assortment of pink and white like coconut ice. Her blonde hair was wet as though she had just been in the shower, and considerably shorter than it had been earlier that day, for now it barely reached below her ears and a fringe had been arranged just above her eyes in Cleopatra style.

It was seven-thirty and the woman still hadn't eaten her tea. Parker wondered if she was hungry at all. But perhaps she was feeling guilty for some reason.

* * *

Parker thought about how she could make friends with the woman. There had to be something wrong, something the examination had missed. She could just feel it. It wasn't so much her Voices, it was just a feeling, an off feeling.

She was starting to worry that Jarod wouldn't ring, that perhaps something bad had happened and he would never ring again, and what about Ethan? But she didn't want to think about these things, so she thought about what Charlotte Fulton could be hiding instead.


	3. Chapter 3

It was late when the phone rang, or early, depending on one's perspective: 5am. Parker seized the phone and yelled into it so loud so could have deafened herself. "YOU BITCH!"

The person on the other end of the phone didn't talk for a long while and Parker imagined it may be her father, wondering if he should send her away to a mental institute now or in the morning, those two stupid little words ringing horribly in her ears and echoing over and over in the corridors of her memory.

Parker was about to speak when she was met with the sound of the dial tone. Whoever had been on the other end of the line had hung up.

Parker swore under her breath and replaced the phone, falling face first into her mattress.

* * *

Ten-thirty the next morning the sound of the phone ringing woke Parker from her Saturday sleep-in. Grumbling, she swung out her arm and grabbed the phone. "What?"

"Hey you, too!"

She practically jumped out of her skin and sat instantly. "Jarod! It's good you rung just now cos I have so much to tell you." And then she remembered about the other night and groaned. "Oh God, I'm so sorry about last night!"

"Yeah, um, Zoe kinda pulled the phone cord out."

Parker snorted. "What?"

"Yeah, apparently she wanted to sleep. Been making a lot of phone calls lately. She gets like that sometimes. Cranky."

Parker laughed and sighed.

"You- you said you wanted to tell me something," Jarod reeled off through stifling a yawn.

Parker leant back against the backing board of her bed-head, a little disheartened now. "Yeah. I did. So I guess I'll just… blurt it out."

"Blurt away."

Parker twisted her fingers in the phone cord. "Raines died and Lyle's in a coma."

"What?" Jarod asked, slightly amused.

"True story," Parker told him in a plain voice.

"What?" He sounded scared now.

"Oh, did I forget to mention that I'm stalking some woman."

"What?"

Parker sighed. "You know, Jarod, you've said 'what' three times in a row now."

"I- okay."

"Mmm."

Jarod took a careful breath. "Parker, are you okay?"

Parker sniffed. "Uh-huh."

"Sure?"

She sniffed again. "Uh-huh."

"You're stalking some woman?" Jarod questioned cautiously, as if to illustrate his concern for her being okay.

"Uh-huh. Yeah. Her name's Fulton. There was an inquiry. She, um, she was the doctor, who, who was looking after the whole thing."

"The whole thing?"

"Yeah. They stuck him in Isolation. You know, like Faith."

"I remember. Why Isolation?"

"They reckoned he had something contagious."

"Some sort of virus?"

"Yeah, a bug."

"I see."

Parker sniffed. "They liked saying that a lot, you know?"

"Who liked saying what a lot, Parker?"

"The examiners. I was appointed an independent observer."

"For the Triumvirate investigation?"

"Yeah."

"I see."

"Jarod, you're doing it again."

"Oh- I- I'll try not to."

"Thank you."

Jarod didn't really know what to say. It scared him a little to hear her thank him for such a small thing, or any thing, in fact. "You really are okay?"

"Yeah."

"So this woman you're stalking?"

"She knows something Jarod, I can feel it."

"I- okay. And- and what about Lyle?"

"Oh. He's not got any funny bug or anything. He just ODed. Stupid prick!"

"O- 'Kay."

"I mean, what kind of an idiot does something like that?" She didn't wait for Jarod's reply before going on. "Let me tell you, Jarod: sometimes, sometimes I seriously have my doubts about that boy."

"You do?"

"I do," Parker confirmed.

"How so?"

"He's such an idiot. I mean, he's a Parker for God's Sake. It's time he started acting one and grew up!"

"I quite agree. Perhaps, when he comes out of his coma, you can tell him this?"

Parker snorted. "Jarod, I'm not his fucking mother!"

Jarod winced. "I realise that."

"Mmm!"

"I, um-"

Parker sighed and swung her legs off the mattress. "I'm hungry. I'm off to make breakfast, or lunch, or whatever!" She placed the phone down abruptly and left the room. Jarod's reaction had been a little worrying, but then, she figured he would talk it through with Sydney and everything would be alright again.

* * *

Parker sighed to herself. "Golf again. You know, little brother, I think I'm kind of getting sick of golf? I'm turning the telly off if you don't mind." She brushed the hair out of her face. "Ooooo! Did I tell you I went to see Fulton the other day – Thursday, or something – and anyway, she prescribed me some Valium. Neat, huh?" She sighed. "She's up to something, that one. She's not to be trusted. So if you see her, or if she talks to you, you'll tell me, right?" She looked across at her brother with her eyes narrowed, only looking away when she was satisfied he had heard her correctly.

"Well, you better!" She scratched the side of her face. "But what do you think it can be? What do you think it can be she's hiding, cos I know she's definitely hiding something. And I'm going to get to the bottom of it, mark my words, little brother. I'm going to find out what her game is and then she's gonna be sorry. Cos, you know, it can't be anything good. I just know. She's got that look about her. Sneaky, is what it's called. Mmmm…" She widened her eyes, hastily getting to her feet. "Just you wait," she told her brother, waving her finger at him, and placed her finger over her lips. "Shhhh! I wasn't here if Green asks."

* * *

Sydney was surprised to hear from Jarod, surprised and delighted and nervous. But then Jarod told him he knew about what had happened and that was why he was ringing. He was worried about Parker.

That hurt Sydney a little, to hear that the only reason Jarod had rang was because he was worried about Parker, but then, he forgot about being hurt and started worrying about Parker again.

He had been tossing up between ringing her and leaving her a bit of breathing space to work things out herself or wait for her to come to him, but now he knew he had to do something. It was out of control. He didn't know why Parker had chose to react this way, it could have been a number of things, but then again, it could have been that William really was her father and somehow, subconsciously, or even consciously, she had known, and if so, chosen not to tell him. But then, she simply could have been reacting adversely to her twin being unwell.

Sydney remembered that sometimes, when Jacob had been unwell or down, he had had similar feelings although they seemed to have nothing to do with the situation he had been in at the time. But again, there were so many possibilities.

Sydney could have spent the rest of his life trying to fathom the girl, or he could just go and talk to her. He decided on the latter, but he also decided that he should not push it, as according to Jarod, she had simply hung up on him, and Sydney did not want her shutting down on him.

* * *

(FLASHBACK)

Charlotte strode into her supervisor's office and up to his desk, hands behind her back. "Sir, you wanted to see me?"

Dr. Raines merely replied, "I did."

Charlotte nodded nervously.

"Take a seat."

Charlotte bit her lip. "I'd really rather not, if it's all the same to you? My shift break ends in three minutes and I haven't the time for chitchat just at this moment, I'm afraid."

Dr. Raines nodded to the seat. "Take a seat, doctor. I have a few questions that need answering and then, perhaps, you can be on your way and finish your shift. Or would you rather I take this straight to the Triumvirate?"

Charlotte sat immediately.

"Good girl. Now perhaps you could start by telling me who it is you work for?"

Charlotte brushed the long blonde hair out of her face. "I don't-"

Dr. Raines held up a hand to silence her. "You know perfectly well what I'm talking about. I don't think the Chairman would take kindly to the idea if I should tell him that you are working for a rival corporation, passing on sensitive documents, do you?"

Charlotte remained very still.

"Now, tell me, who is it that you work for, little girl?"

Charlotte straightened and narrowed her eyes. "To start off with, I am not a little girl, and secondly, I understand what you are accusing me of and refute your claims point-blank," she stormed in a level voice.

"Oh, how very dear!"

"I do only what I am asked to do!"

Dr. Raines laughed, smacking his hand on the table loudly. "You mean to tell me, little girl, that the Chairman asked you to intentionally steal classified information from your own corporation for whatever reason?"

Charlotte spoke through her teeth. "He did."

"Oh, my, this is all getting to be a little too amusing," he said, shaking his head.

"There is no plan to implicate any other corporation, if that is your assumption, sir. I would not have a bar of it. But I suggest you know, the Chairman has ordered a covert investigation into yourself and your work here, Dr. Raines."

"I- what?" the doctor asked, no longer smiling.

"It's exactly as I said, sir. I believe you heard me the first time."

"What? No. Why would you say something like that? Why would you tell me… then… at all?"

"Because I can! And if there is something you are hiding, trust me when I say, we will find it, and you will have to face the Chairman over it."

Dr. Raines shook his head. "You're lying!"

Charlotte smiled. "Do you really believe that?"

"You-"

"Oh, I know, it's not so nice anymore when you're the one being accused, but rest assured, if you have nothing to hide, then how can we possibly find anything?"

Taking a calming breath, Dr. Raines refrained from any nasty words and straightened a little in his chair. "Wouldn't it have been more to your advantage to play the guilty part and see where that took you?"

Charlotte laughed harshly. "Absolutely not. I have no need – or indeed, want – to lower myself to such a level."

Dr. Raines forced himself not to look away from the woman. "Of course not."

Charlotte smoothed her lab coat over her legs. "Well I guess that takes care of that," she chimed, getting to her feet. "Good day, sir."

Dr. Raines took her arm and stopped her at the door. "Wait."

Charlotte sighed, bored and tired.

"I want to know, could you be persuaded, under any circumstances?"

Charlotte didn't smile this time. "No," she replied simply, and then as an afterthought, "I would not like to think of you as threatening me, sir."

Dr. Raines shook his head abruptly. "Oh no!"

Charlotte smiled sickly sweet and patted his nose. "Good!" she chimed in that same sickly voice, and was gone again.

(END OF FLASHBACK)


	4. Chapter 4

Sydney found Parker in her office. She was sitting reading one of her Destiny-Rae Hill romance novels, as calm as anything.

He knocked on the doorframe and was admitted in when Parker looked up from said novel and announced that the door was unlocked.

Sydney was about to make comment on the novel, her place marked by a finger held between the pages of the closed book, but decided against it, for today.

"Did Jarod send you?" she simply asked. "Because I have to tell you, I'm feeling better now thanks. The Valium really does help."

Sydney took a seat opposite the younger woman and frowned. "Well, I'm glad to hear it. You know I am, for Jarod's sake and for mine. But my offer still stands, should you ever need to talk, you know where I am. I just want you to know you shouldn't fear feeling ashamed or embarrassed. I'm not out to get you, Parker, I simply wish to see you better. And yes, Parker, you could be better, as could a lot of us, myself included, but right now, I am only concerned for you." Sydney sighed. "Please, please, just listen to me. I don't want to lose you the way I lost your mother."

Parker dog-eared the page and placed the book down, a curious expression upon her face, and leant forward.

Sydney sighed again. "She was my best-friend, Parker, and I'm sorry I've never had it in me to come out and tell you before, but now I've said it and now you know."

Parker blinked. "Best-friend?" she asked.

"Yes. Best-friend, as odd as that seems to you."

Parker shook her head. "I don't think it odd."

Sydney looked down at the desk. "Jacob and I, we weren't as close as we had once been. Not since ISIS. You see, that is how he got the job here. Director of Med Space until the accident and William took over."

Parker frowned. "That's a nice little co-incidence."

Sydney shook his head. "It doesn't matter anymore. It's no use holding grudges against the dead."

Parker sighed. "So ISIS, hey?"

"Yes. ISIS is a subsidiary of the Centre located over in Canada, an Experimental Eugenics Facility, in fact."

"Jacob worked in Eugenics?"

Sydney nodded. "He did."

"Do you miss him?"

Sydney sighed again. "He was my brother. Of course, I miss him. I don't miss so many things but I do miss a few. Whatever else, he was always still my brother, and I his. I'm sure he misses me too, wherever it is he has gone."

Parker let her breath out. "Sydney?"

"Yes?"

"I miss mine too."

"Yours?"

"My brother. I miss him saying something stupid to piss me off, or me yelling at him or threatening to kill the little bastard."

Sydney frowned but remained silent.

Parker suddenly looked up and met Sydney's eyes. "Why won't he wake up? Why won't he come back to me, Sydney? Have I been that bad of a sister that he'd rather stay in that stupid coma?"

The older man sighed. "Parker, I don't think it works that way."

Parker sniffed. "I miss her too, Sydney. I miss her too much to be breathing, but I am? Why? Why am I still breathing when she isn't? Why me, Sydney? I didn't want to be the lonely one. But now I am, because they're all together again and I'm the only one without someone."

Sydney shook his head and placed his hand on the desk in case Parker wanted to hold it or some such notion. "You're not alone, Parker. I'm sure we all feel that way, we all feel we're alone, when we've lost someone, but we're not, we're alone together, so that makes us no longer alone, if we could just see that."

"But I am alone. I told you I was jinxed, Sydney. But I don't want to be. I don't want any more people to die because of me. I don't want you to die."

Sydney shook his head. "I'm not going to die, Parker. Eventually, yes, I will pass on, but not now, not right now. Look at me. I'm still here."

Parker sniffed.

"Now hug me. I'm cold."

Parker got up out of her seat and went around and hugged Sydney. "Please don't you leave me too."

"I won't."

* * *

(FLASHBACK)

"You know, you're a very clever little girl."

Charlotte spun around and glared at Dr. Raines. "Doctor, what are you doing down here?"

Dr. Raines shrugged, looking around the lab. "Oh, I don't know. Just wanted to talk, I guess."

Charlotte leant against the bench. "Talk about what?"

At this her supervisor smiled. "You."

Charlotte snorted. "Me? Oh, fat chance!"

"True story."

Charlotte crossed her arms across her chest and lifted her chin. "What about me?"

Dr. Raines shook his head. "Oh, you're a smart one, there's no doubt about that, but not smart enough, I'm afraid. I don't like being threatened. You may have heard; you may have not. But the fact remains. You've put yourself in a perfect position, you see, because you are above suspicion. But you never can be too sure, you see.

"Mr. Parker may trust you, but I, on the other hand, have a curious lack of trust in you, my dear. You know what I think?" He shrugged. "Well, anyway, I'm going to tell you anyway. I think I was right about you. You are working for a rival corporation. Only, you see, now here's the clever part, most people wouldn't know, let alone suspect. Most people would stop at your little secret agenda involving the Chairman, but you're sneakier than that. You knew that involving yourself in such a plot would give you value and besides, it could be dangerous, who would suspect you of working for another corporation. Nobody would. But you are, aren't you? Even now."

Charlotte put on a fake laugh. "Oh, dear, we are getting silly now, aren't we?" she joked, and then in a low voice, "Just you prove it!"

"Oh, I don't need to go so far as that. I'll simply go on up there to the Chairman's office and have a nice little chat with Jimmy-boy in which I'll let slip your questionable behaviour, and if James doesn't come out with it, I daresay I'll tell him myself what you told me. Now won't he be upset you tipped me off?"

Charlotte growled. "I didn't tip you off!"

Dr. Raines shook his head, tutting to himself. "But that's not what he's going to think, is it now? He's going to think his pretty little undercover agent has turned on him for his rival, and that is going to make him very disappointed."

"You stupid old man!" Charlotte spat.

Dr. Raines pretended to appear shocked. "Oh really?"

"You," she waved her finger. "You are going to be sorry!"

The older doctor laughed suddenly. "Am I now? Wait, don't tell me, you'll make some nice little story up about me to preoccupy James, and in the mean time – what? – you'll make a run for it?"

Charlotte lunged forward and grabbed the doctor by the front of his clothes, shoving him back. "Watch me, old man!"

Dr. Raines shook his head. "I don't think you should be threatening me, young Miss."

Charlotte snorted. "What, you going to shoot me too, like you shot his wife?"

Dr. Raines laughed, mock scared. "Oh, excuse me. I beg your pardon. Shot his wife. I suppose he told you this himself?"

Charlotte narrowed her eyes. "As a matter of fact, he did!"

"Getting quite chummy with big brother, aren't we?"

Charlotte froze. "What?"

Dr. Raines blinked, imitating her shocked expression. "What? He didn't tell you I was his baby brother?"

Charlotte replaced her gape with a suitable glare.

"I take it that is a 'no'. Oh dear, and you thought he cared about you. Maybe even… liked you. You poor poor little girl! You must just be heart-broken!"

Charlotte finally found her senses and growled. "You think you can scare me," she shook her head, "I don't think so. I _am_ going to find out what you are hiding, and then I _am_ going to tell your brother, and then, we'll see what he makes of that. I do believe he cared about this first wife a great deal, and well, let's just say, he would be less than impressed, if he were to – say – suddenly discover that his little brother and his wife were secretly involved in a more than simply professional manner."

"You dreadful little slut!" he said, grabbing one wrist when she tried to slap him, and the other when she tried to hit him with that hand too.

"Let go!" she growled.

"That's not the way it works, I'm afraid, honey. You know I'm going to have to do something about your insolence. I can't let my brother marry a scheming little cow, now, can I?"

"I'll scream!" she warned.

Dr. Raines tilted his head to one side. "What?"

"HELP! HE'S GONE CRAZY! HE'S GOING TO KILL ME! YOU'VE GOT TO HELP ME! HELP! SOMEBODY HELP ME! HELP!"

Dr. Raines put on a sad face. "Oh, I'm sorry, honey," he cooed. "They can't hear you. Maybe you should scream a little LOUDER!"

"Don't you touch me!" she screamed.

"What? Did you say something, honey?" he asked, dragging her out the door. "I'm afraid you'll have to speak up. All that dreadful screaming earlier has made me quite deaf."

"GET YOUR HANDS OFF ME!" the hysterical woman shrieked.

He shoved her against the wall, smacking the back of her head hard. Charlotte took a deep breath and tried not to collapse from dizziness and the splitting migraine she had just developed. "What, like this?" he asked, grabbing her around the waist and pulling her close to him. He grabbed her arm and twisted it up behind her back. "Don't, or I'll break it," he whispered close to her ear.

Charlotte gave up all struggling and went limp.

Dr. Raines smiled and brushed the hair off her left shoulder, kissing her neck. "Did I ever tell you about my late wife?"

Charlotte trembled, all her attention focussed on the pain in her arm, and didn't reply.

Dr. Raines smiled. "I didn't? Silly me! She was blonde too!"

"STOP IT!" Charlotte screamed suddenly.

Dr. Raines grabbed her hair with his free hand and smacked her head against the wall. "You first!"

The woman quietened down.

"That's a good girl," the doctor congratulated. "You see, I knew you could do it, with the proper… _encouragement_." He let go of her arm, letting it fall limp at her side, and brushed the lab coat off her shoulders. His smile returned. "Well now, we are a pretty one, aren't we?" Charlotte remained silent. "But we could be prettier," he concluded, snatching up her hands and placing them on her chest in indication that she should unbutton her blouse. Her hands shook horribly on the buttons.

Dr. Raines sighed and lifted up her chin. "Want me to help?" he asked in a kind voice one might use on a child. Charlotte just stared into his eyes and didn't respond, her fingers fumbling and falling off the buttons. "Answer me when I ask a question?" he shouted suddenly, pushing her head back and smacking her head into the wall a third time. Grabbing her shirt, he ripped the buttons all the way up and yanked it off.

"Now, see, that wasn't so bad, was it?" he asked, disappointed. "But you just had to go and make a fuss out of nothing at all!" he stormed angrily, looking her up and down. "Turn around," he told her, as plain as if he were asking her to turn around so that he might listen to her lungs. Seizing her arms, he spun her around and smacked her into the wall, ignoring the hitch in her breath. "Dear, dear," he sighed, and unbuckled her bra, planting another kiss on her neck through her long blonde hair. Placing his hands on her shoulders, he felt all down her back, giving her backside a good squeeze, and ran his hands across her stomach and up to her breasts. "Oh, I like these, they're nice," he told her in a little whisper. He ran a hand down her chest to her abdomen and pulled her against him. "Now, now, you see how we can be co-operative. Isn't this nice now?"

Charlotte whimpered, closing her eyes tight.

"A nice little chitchat between friends."

He slipped a hand under the waist of her jeans and pushed her up against the wall, sighing into her hair appreciatively. They were interrupted by the buzz of the mobile phone clipped to the waist of her jeans, vibrating to let her know she had either an incoming phone call she should take of a text message waiting to be read.

Dr. Raines kissed the back of her head. "We'll continue this conversation at a later date, hmmm?" Turning her to face him, he shoved her clothes into her arms and took her by the shoulders.

"Look at me." Charlotte met his gaze with her own hollow brown eyes. "That's a good girl." He placed a kiss on her forehead, and then grabbed a handful of her hair and pulled her head back, giving her a proper kiss, before wrenching her away from the wall and shoving her down the hall. "Run along now," he told her, and smacked her on the behind. "You don't want to be upsetting your boss now." He watched her slow progress. "Tootles." He kissed his hand and blew her a kiss, sighing to himself.

Charlotte stumbled up the hall, trying not to shuffle, and waited until he had turned and gone, before turning to make sure he really was and running.

(END OF FLASHBACK)


	5. Chapter 5

_2007_

William sat leant against the headstone of one Alice Devereux-Carmichael, soaking wet, covered in muck, and shivering. It was day, just very overcast, and still raining.

He had long since realised that Fulton's drug hadn't worked. He was alive after all, but there was something sneakily suspicious, he suspected, turning to look at the little legs kicking about beside him. The legs were wearing white and black horizontal striped socks, black leather shoes and a full circle orangey-red skirt with a lot of tulle to help it keep its fluffy shape.

He looked up at the seven-year-old who was kicking her legs about absently, humming a little tune to herself as she sat on the grey tombstone, dark hair slicked to her face with rain, and arranged her little flowery teacups and teapot expertly, just as if she were attending a real tea party. She continued to hum to herself idly and only looked down when she kicked something that wasn't the grey stone but was William.

She frowned and twinkled her fingers in a little wave. "Oh, hello down there," she chimed, perfectly delightful.

William stood up, his arms crossed across his chest, shivering, and reached out one of his hands, still with his arms crossed. "Hi."

"A-lice," the girl introduced herself. "The very same A-lice Devereux-Carmichael whose tombstone you see be-fore you. Pretty neat, huh?"

William blinked, and refrained from pelting off down the cemetery. Seeing dead girls wasn't so bad. Lyle did it all the time.

The girl looked down her nose superiorly and passed him one of her dainty little teacups. "Tea?"

William sniffed and unfolded his arms, taking the offered cup. "Thanks."

"Quite. Al-right. Sir," Alice replied, gazing around the graveyard proudly as though it were her kingdom. "Pretty wretched weather, I must say," she continued, looking back to William.

"Oh yes," he replied, wondering how on earth he could be drinking tea from a dead girl and how the tea could possibly be hot in this weather besides. Dead things were just not his thing.

"Oh dear," Alice chimed, "I quite forgot the milk and sugar."

William blinked and then replied quickly. "Oh no, I don't mind tea without milk and sugar."

Alice frowned and cast her gaze once more around the graveyard, straightening fairly in order to see farther. "If I may ask, sir?"

"Yes."

"Which are you?"

William passed the little girl back her teacup, which she placed down beside the teapot and took a quick sip of her own tea, before taking William's offered hand. "William Robert Raines."

Alice smiled suddenly. "Oh dear, that is terribly funny!"

William stared at the girl quite as if she were mad, but then remembered his manners. She had probably belonged to quite a well-to-do family, and the rich were not mad, simply eccentric. "It is?" he enquired.

"Oh, yes, sir. It is. After all. It would happen, at this very moment, to be raining."

William smiled uncertainly. "I see. Yes, it is."

"Would you care for another cup of tea?" the little girl asked brightly.

"Oh, um- Yes, I think that should be quite lovely, thank you, A-lice," he replied.

Alice clapped her hands together in a pleased manner. "Splendid!" she announced. "Milk and sugar?"

"Yes, thank you," William stated, smiling a little more now. He was talking to a dead girl! He was out of his mind! He hoped he wouldn't start laughing, however, or else he might end up with tea thrown all over him. Alice didn't seem like the sort of girl who would take kindly to being offended so blatantly.

"Do you know 'Mother Goose'?" Alice asked lightly.

William frowned and shook his head in answer, "No."

Alice pursed her lips. "Well, that was what I was humming, beside."

William tilted his head to one side and smiled brightly. "I see. And quite nice it was."

Alice huffed. "Yes, thank you," she replied shortly, as if to dismiss him were he a servant, and extended an arm for the teacup, leaning forward from the edge of her tombstone. "Now, I am sorry to say, but I really must be off. If this weather gets any worse, we all won't be able to see a good inch in front of our noses. Rather regrettable, sir, but all the same." She packed all her things up into her wicker basket and shut the lid, jumping down from the headstone with a little bounce. Straightening, she smoothed her grey knit cardigan and held out her left hand, the right consequently being used to carry the basket. "Good day, sir."

William shook the little girl's hand and watched her walk off and disappear amongst the rain and headstones. "Goodbye, Alice," he called out, and saw Alice appear from behind a gravestone and wave for him to stop acting a proper silly thing and get on home out of the rain.

"Yes, yes!" she shouted. "Now you just go on and get out of this terrible rain before you go and catch yourself a cold!" And then she added, smiling rather wickedly. "Off with you, you silly old sod!"

William chuckled to himself and gave the child a last wave before going on his way.

Oh God, whatever happened to the dead staying dead? He shook his head. It had something to do with that dratting boy and he knew it!

* * *

Lyle sat with his legs crossed and watched the window for a long time. It was raining something awful. He sighed and concentrated on the sounds of people going about their jobs.

* * *

The door was pushed open and in strode Parker with a fresh bunch of flowers, wearing a pretty chequered pinafore and a short-sleeved shirt underneath, black stockings and a pair of black motor boots, looking quite as though she had just escaped from elementary school.

Parker hummed to herself, quite pleased with the way her date had gone last night. She wasn't stalking Fulton anymore and she was feeling much better about things. She sighed. Sammy was a nice boy. A bit odd, but nice, although it had taken her quite a while to even notice Sammy as a person and not simply a worker, she had got there in the end, and that was what counted.

"I stopped by the florist this morning and waited a whole half an hour before they opened at eight-thirty, and now, see how pretty these ones are. Not a bit wilted, and just for you. But don't you be teasing them now, or else they will have to hide and that won't be very pretty at all."

"I hope you had an umbrella with you?" Lyle asked, wondering if his sister was taken with fever.

Parker waved her finger at him, before moving around to the bedside table to replace the flowers. "Now, I'll have you know, I did indeed. The pretty bright green one," she admonished, arranging the flowers in the vase just right. Pausing, she turned back to her brother. "You're awake!" she announced in a low voice.

"Yeah," Lyle replied, tilting his head a bit, frowning. Perhaps she had caught a bug and was ill. "And I was awake before too," he added.

"You were?" Parker asked, astonished.

"I was. I was watching the rain. It seems like it's been raining a long time."

Parker nodded slightly. "A little over three hours."

"Not such a long time then?" he sighed.

"Oh, long enough." Parker brushed a strand of hair behind her ear and looked away, feeling a little awkward.

"You know, I had the funniest dream."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Funny how?"

Lyle frowned. "There wassss…" He looked up at his sister. "You know, I can't remember any more. Funny that."

Parker laughed. "Yes, funny."

It was then that the doors were pushed open a second time and a little girl came running in. The little girl paused when she noticed Lyle watching her and turned to regard Parker. "Mummy, who is that man?"

Parker picked the three-year-old up and placed her on her hip, turning back to her brother. "Kate, this is your uncle. Lyle."

Kate narrowed her little blue eyes. "Why is wrongs with him?"

Parker looked down at the little girl. "Wrong, baby?"

"He is ins hosbidals," Kate reported, "sos he is havings somesing wrongs with him."

Parker laughed. "Oh, no, baby, he was just sleeping, for a very long time."

Lyle looked away from the little girl, up to his sister.

Parker sighed. "Do you think you could walk with me to the cafeteria? It's nearing on lunch. Kate'll be getting cranky about her hungry tummy."

Lyle nodded and stood up.

"We just got back from Hawaii on Tuesday," Parker explained. "I haven't checked any of the phone messages at work, yet, and that incidentally, is the number I gave the hospital. So, tell me, how long have you been awake, little brother?"

"Two months."

"And has Daddy come to visit?"

"No, not so far."

Parker sighed. "I see."

Lyle looked around the hall.

"Little brother?"

Lyle frowned. "You said you see, but you didn't say what."

Parker burst into laughter suddenly, but upon noticing that her brother appeared to truly not understand, she said, "It's a figure of speech. It's like saying 'I understand'."

Lyle tilted his head a little and nodded. "I. See."

"That's right," Parker replied, a little scared now. The foyer had been unattended when she had come in, and knowing where the room was, she had decided to skip checking in with the front office. Kate had been whining about wanting to go to Maccas for lunch so she hadn't planned on being long. She hoped Lyle didn't have any brain damage. "And how are you, little brother? How do you feel?"

"Cold," Lyle replied, looking around the hall in effort to remember which way the cafeteria was.


	6. Chapter 6

Charlotte sat on a bench in the middle of an enclosed walkway between two shops, and watched the rain pour down in the shopping complex car park outside, her arms wrapped securely around her little boy. He would be turning four at the end of the year. His eyes were brown – thank goodness – and his hair a darker brown.

* * *

(FLASHBACK)

Charlotte turned a corner absently, reading the case history file she had been given, and was startled by a hand closing over her mouth from behind.

"Hello again," Dr. Raines chimed, as though pleased to see her.

She struggled to get out of his hold before she realised the chloroform was making her tired and fell unconscious.

* * *

When next she woke up, she was strapped to a hard bed with leather and could only turn her head. She was on the point of screaming when she noticed someone sitting in the corner, knees drawn up to his chest, just watching her. She didn't think she'd met him before, but she was pretty sure this must be Angelo. "Help," she whispered in a low voice, so as not to startle him. "You must help me."

Seeing no reaction from the older man, she started to panic a little and her voice took on a desperate whine. "Please, he's mad, I think he might kill me. And I don't want to die. Just help me. Please just help me."

Angelo looked around the room skittishly and slowly got to his feet, scuttling over to the woman strapped down to his bed. It was his bed and he was a little grumpy for her being on his bed.

He raised his hand gingerly and smacked her about the mouth. Her eyes went quite wide and his insides squirmed.

He liked that.

She thought she could just push him around like all the others, thought she could tell him what to do in his own room. Well, he wasn't going to let her. He raised his hand again and she whimpered something about 'no, please don't'. Frowning, he grumbled under his breath. _Stupid girls!_ If she wanted to play dead, she could have it her own way. At least she wasn't staring at him like something out of a freak show he remembered Parker telling him about when he was very little.

Angelo snickered to himself childishly. She was pretty and the blonde wasn't fake like the other one's. He was crouched on top of her, holding her arms down in case she decided to stop playing dead. She was tied down, but he had to be sure, and all those buckles just confused him.

Leaning down, he smiled. She smelt nice, like pretty flowers. She was warm too, so he lay down, with his cheek rested on her own, and listened to her breathing. He was happy like this, but then he felt her hair and it was so soft.

* * *

He was interrupted some time later by the door opening once more and sat up. "Da-dee," he hissed in a thick lisp, "Charlie talk Angelo. Charlie say want Angelo help." He shook his head frantically. "Angelo must not be helpings Charlie."

Dr. Raines frowned and pointed to the corner.

Angelo hissed and looked back to the woman, making sure she was still playing dead.

Dr. Raines rolled his eyes impatiently and handed his subject a box of sweets, which Angelo snatched away and scuttled to his corner with, petting the box and talking utter nonsense to it in a cooing voice. "Charlie not stay," he said suddenly, looking up to meet the older man's gaze. "Angelo room."

Dr. Raines shook his head and stroked Charlotte's hair. "No, no, she won't be staying for long. She's got her own room, in her own flat. I'm sure she likes it much better there."

Angelo mumbled to his box of sweets, keeping his eyes on the doctor patting the pretty hair.

* * *

Charlotte woke with a sick feeling in her stomach. The reason for the sick feeling became apparent soon enough, however. The man was still watching her from the corner over a box of something, just as if he were somehow envious. Charlotte wanted the nasty jolting in her stomach to stop and she wanted the man to stop touching her like that. She didn't think she'd ever be able to scrub herself enough to make herself clean again. She didn't know what to do, so she started screaming, although she knew no one would hear down here.

No one ever came down here.

* * *

Charlotte sat in front of her television and watched the flickering of image after image with hollow eyes. Five-thirty became eleven-thirty, day turned to night, and she realised it was time for her to go to bed, she needed to get some sleep for tomorrow.

She lay on her stomach, listening to the sounds around her, before she was satisfied everything was fine and was about to fall asleep when she got up to check all the doors and windows again. She knew she was being paranoid, but one never could be too sure.

* * *

She had gone a week without seeing her supervisor once and was feeling quite confident that she wouldn't be jumping out of her skin each time someone walked around the corner ahead of her, or came up behind her to tell her something. She just had to remain calm.

She figured that she might have told James, but she couldn't risk being found out. She couldn't be drawing any undue attention to herself. Her mission was simple in its essence. There was no need to be over-complicating it. She simply needed to keep her wits and carry on with the mission, she was determined that there must not be any falling behind the deadline.

* * *

Charlotte turned and reached across for the shampoo bottle, her eyes blurry from water. "Is this what you were looking for?" She only fully registered she was not alone when he handed her the bottle, which she took, and promptly dropped again, backing into the shower wall.

She shook her head frantically, holding her hands in front of her as though to push him away. "No! Wait!" she hollered. "I'll do it okay! I'll do it!" She wasn't entirely sure what she was saying, but it seemed to make sense. She knew it wouldn't seem so bad if it was on her own terms, or she were at least prepared for it. "Please! Please don't hurt me! I'll do whatever you want!"

The doctor looked her up and down and sighed. "I suppose it couldn't hurt," he replied, grabbing a handful of her hair and wrenching her ungraciously from the shower.

She tried not to sob and to show she was fully compliant with whatever action he may wish for her.

* * *

He cast around her bedroom incredulously at the pretty stuffed things and shiny hanging things, their tiny reflections bouncing the light from the street lamp outside around the room as if they were all part of a funny sort of disco ball.

There were several books on the tiny white shelf bolted to the wall, the majority of which were Kurt McCarty, from the Fairytales in Technicolour series. "Romance novels?" he questioned.

Charlotte managed to get a few words in over her frantically beating heart. "I… find them interesting."

Dr. Raines sighed dismissively. "Believe you me, romance is over-rated."

Charlotte shivered in the stingingly chill air, still dripping wet and with nothing on. She wanted to run over to her bed and hide under the doona until the scary monster left, but she knew that was not how it worked in real life. He wanted something and he wouldn't leave until he had gotten it, and she thought she knew exactly what that something was.

Taking a step away from him, she spun around and walked backwards toward her bed, not allowing her eyes to flicker to the bedside lamp she intended to knock him out with, which should give her enough time to call the cops. He was in her house now, and she hadn't invited him in.

Diving back suddenly she seized the lamp and swung it back, lunging forward with a viscous growl.

Far from jumping back in fright, Dr. Raines simply took her wrist and held it there. "Let go," he told her calmly.

Charlotte made to grab his hand with her other hand and pull the lamp back so that she might smack him with it, but then she couldn't feel much of her hand and the lamp fell from her grasp and smashed on the floor. Frightened, she lurched forward and grabbed hold of him, kicking and scratching.

Dr. Raines sighed and dragged her to the bed and threw her down on the mattress, planting himself down on top of her, her wrists held fast at her sides. "Now, now," he sighed, "is that any way to behave when you said you would. I do believe you're starting to disappoint me, and you know me, don't do disappointment very well."

Charlotte shook her head hysterically. "Please! Please!" she pleaded. "I'll be a good girl! I'll behave from now on!"

Dr. Raines sighed, sceptical. "You will?"

"Yes, yes," she ranted, "I'll be a good girl."

"Hmmm." He smacked her hard across the face. "Now you know I didn't want to do that," he warned, disappointed, "so all you've got to do is behave and I won't have to do that ever again. Do we have an understanding?"

Charlotte whimpered in the back of her throat and nodded. "Y-yes," she croaked.

Dr. Raines smiled. "You see, I knew you could do it."

* * *

Charlotte felt her eyes stinging with tears, but immediately cursed herself for her stupidity. He wasn't interrupting her mission, so why should she be complaining. T-Corp had made it very clear that the only value she had to them was whilst she was working. Should she fall out of usefulness and become decommissioned, there was no turning back, and she _would_ be terminated. She owed her life to T-Corp, after all, and there was nothing left of her old life for her to regret. She remembered absolutely nothing, she _was_ absolutely nothing.

Dr. Raines's office was a bit scruffy, but then again, she knew he wasn't a doctor any longer, simply a psychiatrist, and he had hardly any patients who could care less what his office did or did not look like.

Seeing that she had kept her end of the bargain, he finished his phone call and placed the phone down, moving around his desk and embracing her from behind, a hand sliding underneath her skirt to caress her stomach.

Charlotte shivered and immediately wished she hadn't.

"Oh dear, we're not cold are we?" he asked, turning her to him and brushing the hair from her face as though affectionately.

Charlotte put on a false smile. "Only a little," she admitted in a shy voice, laughing softly at her silliness and looking away. She didn't want to look at his eyes, they gave her the creeps, almost as if they were unnaturally blue.

He took her face in his hands and turned her to face him once more. "Would you like a drink to warm you up?"

"I suppose so," she replied shyly, brushing a strand of hair from her eyes. "What- What have you got?"

He smiled, placing a kiss on her cheek and took her around the middle. "Come and see."

* * *

Charlotte giggled loudly and scrambled back on the carpet, smacking his hand away when he tried to grab for her shirt buttons. Finally, she collapsed back on the carpet, staring up at the ceiling out of breath and giggling manically. Dr. Raines sat down on top of her and she heaved herself into a semi-sitting position, her weight rested on her elbows, and reached up with one hand to pat his nose, falling back down onto the carpet in a fit of breathless giggles.

The bottle of scotch lay very nearly empty on its side on the carpet not far away.

Grabbing the hems of her shirt, she ripped it open and burst into fresh laughter. "Ta-dah!"

Dr. Raines grinned and rested his forehead upon hers for a while in which she stopped laughing and remained quite still, unsure of his intentions suddenly.

Sighing, he scrambled back and placed a kiss upon her bare stomach, and continued kissing all the way up her stomach.

"Don't," Charlotte whined in between giggling, "I'll pee myself, I swear."

Dr. Raines shot her a very 'Now do be serious here, my dear' expression and paused for a moment when he came to her bra, before deciding the heck with that and kissing that too.

* * *

Charlotte gripped the sides of the filing cabinet and hoped her legs would keep her up. "No! I wanna tell you something," she heaved breathlessly. Falling forward suddenly, she spun around and grabbed the doctor by the arms and pulled him to the floor with her. "I like it better when you look at me," she stumbled, placing her hands on his chest and pushing him back, as a wicked smile came onto her lips, "but now it's _my turn_!" She scooped up her hair and threw it behind her shoulder, dipping suddenly to kiss the side of his face.

(END OF FLASHBACK)

* * *

Charlotte gently shook the little boy's shoulders to wake him and lifted him up into her arms as she stood, deciding it best to make a dash for the car whilst the rain was lighter.

Once in the car, she turned the key in the ignition and put the heater on and leant across to put her son's Hi-5 CD into the player.

The little boy curled up on the front seat and rested his head in his mother's lap. Charlotte watched the rain and people dashing around in umbrellas for a long time until she realised her baby was no longer sleeping in her lap.

The little boy held his hands outstretched in front of the fans blasting out hot air and sung along with the music, badly out of key. Charlotte shuffled across the seats and hugged the little boy to her side, singing along with him in a strangely musical voice, placing a kiss on the top of his head.


	7. Chapter 7

Parker smiled across at Kate munching on her chips, determined to finish them before anyone else, and sighed. "Oh, I'm married now," she told her brother, looking around at him and frowning.

Lyle turned away from watching Kate and looked up at his sister, shivering now.

"Sam," she replied hopefully, as though not really expecting him to remember who Sam was, and held up her hand to indicate the ring on her left ring finger. "I married Sam."

Lyle reached out for her hand and smiled. "Shiny."

Parker's smile faded a little and she hitched it back. "Isn't it?" She sighed. "Aren't you going to eat your chips, little brother? You are allowed to eat chips, aren't you?"

Lyle shook his head. "Not yet, but soon."

Parker whined, slouching a little. "Oh, silly you, why didn't you tell me before."

Lyle squinted and leant forward. "Tell you?"

"Yes, why didn't you tell me you couldn't eat chips."

Lyle giggled suddenly. "Forgot," he explained.

Parker narrowed her eyes, wondering if he just hadn't told her because he had thought maybe he may have been able to eat a few and not be sick. She sighed and shot her brother a reprimanding little glare.

* * *

"Oh, hello, this is where you've gotten to," a voice piped up from behind Parker. Parker looked the woman up and down in a critical manner and frowned. She wasn't sure she liked this woman, but she was dressed in a nurse's uniform, so she must have been quite okay being there. "Aren't you going to introduce your friends then?" the nurse asked, passing the salt from the next table.

Parker straightened in her seat and lifted her chin. "Lyle is my brother," she explained.

The nurse smiled kindly. "Lyle isn't supposed to have visitors, but I guess we could make an exception in your case. It is nice to have visitors."

Parker narrowed her eyes in a glare. "What do you mean, he isn't supposed to have visitors?"

The nurse blew her fringe up. "Oh, it's just some silly rule, I'm sure." Then she turned back to Lyle and crossed her arms, her eyes narrowed and a mischievous little smile upon her face. "Hey you!"

Lyle rolled his eyes. "Look, lady," he told her, "It ain't as if I was attemptin' ta escape or nothin'!"

"Oh, weren't it now?" the nurse enquired, imitating his scruffy bumpkin pronunciation. "Young man, you best hope that sure is the case, or else I'm afraid the odds won't be looking so shiny in your d'rection."

Lyle snorted. "Whatch you gonna do, spank me?"

The nurse smacked a hand over her mouth and doubled over, killing herself laughing.

Lyle shot Parker a desperate look. "That woman's not normal," he told his sister, "if ya know what I mean." He tapped his index finger on his temple. "Not all there in the upstairs, I'm afraid."

The nurse straightened up and made to smack him across the back of the head.

"I'm tellin' ya," Lyle went on, taking the woman's hands, "she's a crazy one alright."

"Oo you callin' cra-zee?" the nurse teased.

Lyle shot her a serious expression. "You, ya crazy thing!"

The nurse burst into laughter again.

"See what I mean. Certifiable."

Parker frowned. She rather thought her brother was being a little dim. It was plain as day the nurse had a bit of a thing for him, although Parker couldn't quite figure out how that had happened.

Kate was busy sipping her soft drink through her straw, a seriously worried expression on her face, as though if she didn't get her drink down now, she may never get another chance to drink Coke.

* * *

Sydney sighed, nodding every once in a while whilst Parker ranted about this nurse who obviously had some sort of criminal record and was unsavoury and was keeping her baby brother in that horrible place against his will, and well – Hell – she was just plain evil.

Sydney cleared his throat and stared back into Parker's extremely wide and expectant eyes. She was hoping Sydney would suggest they kidnap him.

"I think someone's a little jealous," Sydney observed and was met with an uncomfortable silence that lasted a little over ten minutes.

"I'm not jealous!" Parker suddenly exclaimed in an outraged whine.

Sydney couldn't help it. He just had to laugh.

* * *

Parker explained to Sam over cutting vegetables for dinner, that she didn't want to see Sydney anymore and that she wanted a referral to another psychiatrist because Sydney was obviously a complete idiot if he couldn't see that that nurse was a succubus and had no good intentions when it came to her little brother.

Kate stopped in the door and shot her father a 'Momma's lost it' look.

Sam immediately wished he could just press the mute button. His head was aching something awful all of a sudden and he imagined he would have to sit down with his daughter and have a frank discussion about why her mother always wore her clothes backwards and sung 'Ave Maria' at the top of her voice whenever they went shopping. He could just see his daughter's unconvinced face when he told her 'Because that's just what crazy people do, honey'.

Parker plonked the potatoes in the pot and stopped for a breath, brushing the hair off her face and up over her head. "You don't think I'm being paranoid, do you?"

Sam froze, but Parker appeared not to notice.

"Over-reacting a little, is all I mean to say. You don't think your wife is losing her bolts, do you Sam?"

Sam took his wife's hands and placed them around his waist and pulled his wife to him and kissed her. "I think, perhaps, we could do without all this talk, is all."

Parker pushed her husband away grumpily. "Sam, I'm in the middle of preparing dinner!" she reprimanded.

Sam shrugged, the picture of innocence. "So?"

Kate was about to step into the kitchen when she froze and retraced her steps. "Oh man!" Apparently she would just have to watch her DVD without popcorn.

* * *

Sam dreamt that he woke in the middle of the night to find Parker on the phone, obviously worried. When he picked up the phone in the other room, it became apparent that Parker was on the phone to her tech and was trying to find out if he could do a background check on this Dani Alistair, the succubus nurse. Sam sighed and looked across at the clock on the hall wall. It was all of 3am. He went back to bed. Parker would be better in the morning. She was a tough girl.

Sam woke around daybreak and just listened to Parker's breathing. She was a tough girl, and she was _his_ girl.

* * *

Charlotte sat at the kitchen table and watched her son eat his packet cereal, stirring her coffee absently to cool it. She ran a hand over her stomach, fidgeting with the stud in her belly button. The child quite suddenly looked around, interested in something outside the window.

"Finish your breakfast, baby," his mother told him in a blank voice. The child obeyed and forgot all about what he had been watching out the window.


	8. Chapter 8

Dani lay on her stomach, chin in her hands, propped up by her elbows. Lyle lay next to her, staring up at the ceiling absently.

Dani huffed and kicked him in the leg. "Oi! You still alive over there?"

Lyle snorted and chucked her back her book. "It's a stupid girly book anyway!" he grumbled. "Who wants to read stupid girly girly girl books?"

Dani imitated his snort and kicked him again, rolling over so that she was half lying on him, staring up at the ceiling also. "I do!" she admonished, and snatched the book up, turning to the spot she knew she had read last by its dog-ear and flicked through the pages until she found the spot where Lyle had stopped reading. She shook her head and went back to the dog-ear, not having recognised anything so far. "You better not have been making that all up!" she warned teasingly.

Lyle huffed.

"You're such a retard," Dani told him.

"Thanks for that vote of confidence," Lyle replied.

Dani chucked the book across the room, glaring at the offending window. "Ugly weather."

Lyle snorted. "I don't know about the weather, but I sure as Hell know one thing that's ugly around here."

Dani gasped and sprang to her knees and punched him.

Lyle grabbed her wrists and shot her an annoyed glare. "Would you quit hitting on me already, woman?"

Dani wrenched her wrists free and punched him again. "No!" she replied horribly.

"I was talking about the décor, I swear," he told her innocently.

She huffed, thumping her head back on his chest, and crossed her arms. "Don't believe you!" she whined.

"Don't then," he told her.

* * *

Dani sniffed. "I'm bored."

"Oh my, stop the world – Dani's bored!"

Dani growled.

Lyle rolled his eyes. "Tell someone who gives a shit, darl."

"Retard!"

"No probs! Any time. It's an inexpensive service, for just one instalment of 19.95, not including postage and handling of 2.95-"

Dani elbowed him.

* * *

"It's not still raining?" Dani asked sleepily, opening her eyes.

"Yep."

"Was I just sleeping?"

"Yep."

"Well thanks for waking me!" she retorted.

"No probs!"

"God, that's just traumatic. Now what if someone asks if I've ever slept with you? I'd have to say 'yes'."

Lyle pushed Dani away. "Oh, God, girl! Has anyone ever told you you've a sick mind?"

Dani snorted, pushing him back. "Yeah. You – just then."

Lyle shot her a serious glare and pushed her again.

Dani sighed and got up off the bed, staring at the door to the ward. "Hey, you wanna see me strip?" she asked suddenly, ignoring Lyle's snorting. "I was a pole-dancer once, you know."

Lyle shook his head as if to say 'This isn't what it looks like'.

Dani growled and snatched a pillow up and smacked him with it. "Shut up, you idiot boy!"

Lyle continued shaking his head and tried taking the pillow off her. "I can't. You're just plain crazy and it's so funny!" he told her through trying to breathe.

Dani growled again and forgot to pull back on the pillow and was pulled on top if him.

"You. Crazy. Girl."

Dani glared back at him.

Lyle gasped suddenly as though scared and scrambled back, diving off the other side of the bed. "Oh my God! The evil eye!" he teased, making a cross with his fingers. "Back, fowl fanged fiend!"

Dani snorted and walked around the bed towards him, stopping a few metres short and placing her hands on her hips. Lifting her chin up, she said. "You are the most offensive loathsome boy I have ever had the unfortunate misfortune to meet!"

Lyle snorted. "So shoot me!"

Dani narrowed her eyes. "Gee, don't I wish someone would!" She folded her arms tight across her chest and stomped off and sat down on the bed closest to the ward's double swinging doors, lifting her shoes off the floor and sitting against the back board of the bed, head rested on her folded arms, rested on her knees pressed to her chest.

"Nice undies," Lyle commented.

Dani growled and straightened her legs, smoothing down her skirt and shooting him a horrible glare. She showed him her rude finger. "Fuck! Off!"

Lyle chuckled to himself and went back to his own bed.

* * *

Dani sat counting her fingers over and over, mumbling to herself as she did. Lyle wished she wouldn't. He was trying to listen to the rain and her silly little girly voice kept distracting him. It was enough to drive anyone to insanity, honestly!

* * *

"Okay, we all know you've got ten fingers," Lyle told her, knelt in front of her, and closed her hands. "Now, would you kindly stop before I lose my last semblance of sanity and kill you?"

Dani looked up from her hands. "How?"

Lyle sighed, tossing his head to one side. "Oh I don't know! Maybe I'll just strangle you," he told her, placing his hands around her throat.

Dani remained staring back at him with that same blank stare.

"Or maybe…?" he took his hands from around her throat, still staring straight into her eyes. He wasn't going to be the one to look away. He wasn't scared of no crazy girl.

Dani squealed suddenly and pushed him away, leaping off the bed.

Lyle snorted. That girl was ticklish something awful! He slipped off the bed and took chase after the squealing girl. He wondered if she had ever been in one of those primary school plays, because he bet she had been the pig.

Dani smacked into the wall and spun around. "You! Stay back!" she warned, out of breath and trying desperately not to laugh.

Lyle mentally shook his head. He had barely even touched her and her she was getting all worked up. If that wasn't crazy, he didn't know what was.

He lunged forward and grabbed her wrists, holding them above her head.

Dani had stopped giggling and was shivering as though scared.

"You didn't finish reading the chapter," he told her, and nodded to the book on the floor beside her shoes.

Then he let go of her hands and backed away, turning around and walking back to his bed.

Dani stood there for a few seconds before she stooped and snatched the book up, smacking it on her thigh in case it had collected any dust. She stood flicking through the book in order to find her place, before she sighed and shut the book once more. "Not enough light," she replied, noting that it was probably eleven o'clock at night and lights-out had been some time ago.

It was just the light from the window and double doors that cast a little light into the room. She wouldn't be able to read the book unless she stood out in the hall and how silly would that look if any night security men came walking past.

Dani sighed and sat down on the bed closest to the window, watching the rain streak down, blurring the image of the street lamp against the glass as though it were melting.

* * *

She lay down on the bed, hands above her head, and sighed. "Kill me."

Lyle snickered from the middle of the room, sitting on his own bed.

Dani ignored his response and went on in that same plain voice. "You said you would." Then she turned her head to him so that her eyes glittered in the dark. "I want you to."

Lyle shut up and got off his bed. She was as crazy as a hatter!

When she noticed him approach, she looked back to the ceiling, unblinking.

He knelt over her, a knee on either side of her, and watched her for perhaps a second. She didn't look down once, simply watched the ceiling, her mouth shut and her breathing calm, if not a little deep.

He placed his hands around her throat and tightened his grip until she started to choke, her eyes flickering about across the ceiling.

* * *

Dani patted him on the shoulder frantically, trying to get him to release her. Lyle stopped kissing her abruptly and wandered back to his own bed. She was a strange girl alright!

Dani lay there just breathing, her frantic eyes overlarge.

Lyle was apparently pretending to be asleep when she looked. He was lying on his stomach with his arms folded over the silly white hospital pillow, his face rested in his arms. She was thankful he was facing the door and went back to staring up at the ceiling.

* * *

She thought that if she shut her eyes, she would have been able to sleep, but now she was wide awake, wondering if Lyle really was asleep or if the little shit was only pretending to piss her off. She rolled over and sat up, slipping off the bed silently, and snuck across the room.

"Hey," she breathed close to his ear, knelt over him on the bed.

She knew he can't have been sleeping because he turned around and just glared at her.

Dani leant down quickly and kissed him, straightening up almost as quickly, and waited for his reaction. When he didn't respond, she crossed her arms across one another and caught the hem of her pyjama top, wrenching the thing off over her head and dropping it off the side of the bed.

Lyle scrambled back to the head of the bed and watched her as though expecting her to burst into flame.

Dani crawled up to him and took up his hands, placing them in the small of her back. "This way I'll really be able to say you slept with me if anyone asks."

Lyle cautiously pulled her forward, careful to keep his hands from straying any farther downward, and kissed her shoulder. Retrieving his hands again, he pushed her back and planted himself on top of her.

Dani stared back at him expectantly and just like that he was afraid. This was Dani, this was his nurse. He knew what books she liked to read (romance genre), he knew her favourite colour (green, the colour of her eyes), he knew her favourite drink (strawberry thickshake, or anything with strawberry in it really). Far too much, in other words, than he would have liked to know. He would have to see her every other day just like nothing had happened. He would have to look at her as though he didn't know what she looked like underneath all of that girly nurse's uniform.

Taking a shaking breath, he leant down and kissed his nurse.

Dani rubbed his shoulders and ran her hands down his back, fidgeting around for the hem of his shirt.

He wanted to run but that would just look really really bad.

Dani opened her eyes and met his gaze. "Can I?"

He nodded mutely. Off went the shirt.

"Kiss me." She placed a hand over her mouth. "Here."

He leant down and kissed her on the lips.

Dani moaned and placed his hand on the side of her neck. "Here."

He obeyed.

"Here." She took his hand in both of hers and pressed it against her warm breasts.

His heart wasn't lending him any favours and he was sure she could hear it. Yet, again, he did as was instructed.

"And here." Finally her hand slid under the elasticised hem of her flimsy cotton pyjama bottoms, massaging her abdomen. She slid her thumbs underneath the hem and wriggled about until she had finally hitched the pants over her chubby behind.

Lyle stared at her little green briefs with a pattern of cute little penguins with red bowties, imagining they were something a twelve-year-old might wear, but hardly a grown woman of thirty-something. "Nice… undies…"

Dani shook her head, biffing him across the back of his head. "Oh, get out of it you!"

"No, I'm not kidding here. They're really _really_ romantic, I swear. I can see how they would just make a man want to take you off to his castle and keep you there until he saw some other pretty youngish thing."

"Oh, you really are horr-id!" Dani pulled herself up into a sitting position and hitched her pyjama bottoms back up, sliding off the bed in a hurry.

"Don't be like that now, pumpkin," Lyle whined jokingly and grabbed her about the middle, falling back onto the bed and pulling her onto his lap.

"Get! Off! Me!" she grunted.

Lyle chuckled to himself and took his hands from around her waist. "'Ere ya go, apricot." That girl really could elbow!

"I'm not a _bloody_ apricot! And I'm sure as Hell not your apricot!" she snarled.

Lyle snickered to himself, earning himself a stomp on the foot. "Now that just ain't right!" he told her. "You, young lady, is wearing shoes, and they is damn horrible shoes. Now is that seem fair to you?"

Dani made to get up and was pulled back down.

"Oh no you don't! You ain't goin' nowheres until you apologise good and proper for them shoes o' yours."

Dani growled in a low voice. "Well now, we're gonna be sittin' here a long time if you're thinkin' I'm gonna apologise. An' if that doctor that comes in here at nine o'clock on the dot gives us a funny look, I'm gonna blame you!"

Lyle shook his head. "It ain't so bad. Now alls you got to do is say: 'Look here now, I'm real sorry 'bout steppin' on your foot down there, but I just didn't see it in this here light.' That's all you gotta do. I swear."

Dani snorted. "An' what if I ain't sorry?"

"Then I'd say wes got ourselves here a ser-i-ous problem."

Dani squealed suddenly and wriggled about madly. "I'm not sorry!" she yelled breathlessly over her mad giggling.

"'Lyle, I'm sorry I stepped on your foot.'"

"I'm not sorry!" she squealed, squirming madly in effort to escape the tickling.

"'Lyle, I'm really really terribly sorry about your foot, but – hey – shit happens.'"

"I'M NOT SORRY!"

"'Words cannot express my sorrow. I am so so so sorry. Can you ever forgive me? I don't want to go to Hell because of some silly little misunderstanding.'"

"I'M NOT SORRY!" Dani roared close to his ear.

Lyle sighed, falling back on the bed, and pulled Dani back with him with a little squeal. His arms fell from around Dani's stomach and she lay there for a minute or so before she went to find her top and pull it back on. Pulling the crisp hospital blankets up about her chest, she sighed and kicked her shoes off, closing her eyes and falling asleep soon after.

* * *

Dani woke at five, something she had been doing a lot lately. Her car would be fixed soon, and then it would be back to her dreary old flat with the television that hissed over the talking and the rolling picture, right in the middle of her favourite television series, a soapie from Spain.

There was no carpet and the place got freezing at night. And if that wasn't bad enough, the plumbing was always blocked and gargled and dripped all night, like Chinese water torture.

Kicking it didn't seem to work; actually, it was as good as the letter she had written to her landlord asking for the plumbing to be fixed because she sure as Hell wasn't going to be paying for it every other week. It was beyond her why anyone would install such narrow piping in the first place.

* * *

Dani lay awake for half an hour before deciding to go and wake Lyle. She stood in her bare feet, shivering in the chill morning air. The rain having stopped, she had opened the window a touch in order to get some air circulation.

Sitting down on the bed beside him, she took his shoulders and shook him carefully, leaning down to blow on his cheek.

Lyle opened his eyes and stared up at her for a long while without words.

Dani wondered if he was trying to remember how to speak and smiled. "Morning."

Lyle squinted and turned to regard the window. "You sure 'bout that?"

Dani's smile widened. "Yes, I'm sure." She leant across and placed her forehead against his own. "I'll tell you what, we're doing a deal on hugs, but it's for a limited time only. Just this morning. All hugs are completely free. Nothing to pay – ever. How special is that?"

Lyle snorted and looked away back to the window.

Dani placed her head against his shoulder and hugged him. "Did you really mean that about me being ugly?" she asked in a whisper.

"Did you really mean that about wanting to die?"

Dani snickered. "No. Well, yes; but not anymore, not really. It kinda seems pointless now."

Lyle sighed. "Well there's your answer."

Dani lifted her head up off his shoulder and met his eyes. "Why'd you stop?"

Lyle shrugged. "My hand got sore."

Dani snickered again. "Oh, likely story!"

"It did!" Lyle protested indignantly.

"Why'd you kiss me then?"

"To see if you'd hit me."

Dani laughed. "You want me to hit you?" she asked incredulously.

Lyle snorted. "No!"

Dani sighed. "You're a silly thing!"

* * *

"Why'd you have to go and piss me off by saying something stupid?"

Lyle took a deep breath and sighed. "I had to give you an excuse, so you wouldn't blame yourself."

Dani snorted. "What _are_ you talking about?"

"You were just so scared."

"I wasn't scared! I was the one who _came_ onto _you_! How is that scared?"

"You were trying not to be, I know, but that doesn't change the fact."

Dani laughed harshly. "Oh, and since when do you care?" she asked horribly.

"It… just…" he shook his head, hesitant, "felt wrong."

"Oh really? So now- now you have feelings?" she stormed, wrenching herself back up and stomping off over to the window. She shook her head. "I don't need to listen to this shit!"

Lyle crossed his arms and turned to face the door. "Oh fuck off!"

* * *

"Seeing as its light again and you can see properly, maybe you could finish the chapter now?"

Dani grabbed the book off the bedside table and chucked it at him from across the window, scowling. "Read it yourself!"

Lyle went to retrieve the book off the floor and sat back down on a bed closer to the window. "I can't."

Dani spun around to face him, arms crossed across her chest. "Well maybe you should _fucking_ learn!"

"Well, no! You know what? I'd rather go fuck that girl up at the front desk! At least she has a little regard for people's feelings! Unlike you. No, you're just a fucking sadistic bitch!" He shook his head and laughed harshly. "No, you know what, I can see you want to – so hit me! Fucking hit me! I don't have any feelings anyway!" he shouted, storming up to her.

Dani backed into the wall, glaring awfully.

"Go on! Fucking hit me! What are you waiting for?" He lunged forward and grabbed her hand suddenly. "I said fucking hit me!"

Dani squealed and pulled her hand back, diving around him and making a run for the door.

"That's right!" he yelled, chasing after her. "Get the fuck out of here! Just fucking fuck off! I don't even wanna see you for the rest of the fucking day! No, you know what – FOR THE REST OF MY FUCKING LIFE!"

Dani smacked into the door and disappeared out into the hall.

Lyle laughed and kicked the door. "Fuck you – you fucking gay bitch!"

* * *

Dani sat out on the front steps of her flat, having walked all the way home. It was raining now, but she didn't care. Sitting out here she could tell herself she wasn't crying, that it was just the rain!

The sound of a car honking somewhere out on the highway startled her from her trance and she stood stiffly and walked back inside.

Half an hour later and she had changed out of her wet clothes and into a pair of shiny white hot pants patterned with cherries, a tight black and gold lycra tee, and a shiny red coat that reached halfway to her knees, complete with a set of chucky black and red knee-high gothic boots. She wore a white streak in her hair and had done around her eyes in black.

Why should she get all sooky over a fucking boy? She had never liked the fucking jerks in the first place! She was better than them. How could they possibly fucking deserve her? It was fucking impossible. She laughed manically. She needed to get fucking pissed!

* * *

The flashing lights and smashing music made her head hurt, and the smoke made her eyes sting and her head spin, as though she wasn't getting enough oxygen to her brain. Her head felt stuffed up as though she had come down with the cold and she couldn't stop laughing, backed up against the wall of a cubicle in the Ladies Room, Shay's hands all over her and her pretty smelling hair soft against her cheek.

* * *

Charlotte turned over in her bed and pulled the pillow closer to her chest.

* * *

(FLASHBACK)

Charlotte sighed to herself and looked around the table. They had a boardroom meeting and Dr. Cox was away on an important conference so it had been delegated to her to present the recent outcomes and statistics for the Medico Department, or Med Space as it was popularly referred to, to the Tower.

Dr. Raines sat to her left and a woman from Administration to her right.

The Admin woman was scheduled after Management and before Charlotte, after which Security – along with the Sweepering Dep – had their chance to talk themselves up in hopes of winning some extra funding.

The most interesting part of the meeting was how much Lyle Parker seemed to love the sound of his own voice. Mr. Parker had the same sickness, but didn't tend to play on the dramatics quite so much, for which Charlotte was thankful, because half the time all she had wanted to do was burst out laughing.

* * *

"That poor boy!"

Dr. Raines looked up from his paperwork, and shoved Charlotte's foot off his leg.

Charlotte put on a sad face. "Is poor baby grumpy?"

He huffed. "Just give it a rest will you, Charlotte?"

Charlotte frowned. "What do you mean?"

Dr. Raines looked up and met her eyes. "I mean you're fucking pissing me off," he told her flatly.

Charlotte blinked, outraged, and stopped swivelling the chair slowly from side to side, getting to her feet. "What the fuck do you mean by that?"

Dr. Raines got to his feet also and moved around the desk, lunging forward to grab the woman's hair before she could back away more than half a step. Charlotte yowled but didn't back down her glare. "I would think it perfectly obvious, wouldn't you?"

Charlotte growled. "Oh perfectly, doctor!"

"Just… stop talking. Your voice is making me sick."

Charlotte scoffed. "Hhh! So it's my fault now is it? The whole fucking world is my fault! Hmm?"

Dr. Raines backed her up against the wall. "I said 'stop'!"

The younger woman snorted. "Make! Me! You sick fuck!" Her laughter was cut short abruptly and she looked down, her eyes falling on the letter opener stuck half in her abdomen. "Don't," she whimpered in a small voice.

Dr. Raines ignored her and pulled the thing out with a horrible twist, dropping it to the floor with a little clatter.

Charlotte slid down the wall with an awful moan, a shaking hand pressed over the wound as though in attempt to stop the blood spilling out.

Dr. Raines ignored the whining woman and kicked the bloody letter opener away across the floor, and went back to his desk in mind of finishing up his paperwork.

* * *

Charlotte awoke with a start and seeing Dr. Raines watching her, backed away violently. "I'm sorry, Charlotte," he began.

"Shut! Up!" Charlotte breathed in a horrible whisper, her hands pressed over her ears, tears springing to her grubby brown eyes.

Dr. Raines frowned and reached out for her wrists, knelt before the scared woman backed up against the wall, trapped by the filing cabinet to her right. "Charlotte, you've got to-"

Charlotte shook her head frantically and struggled in his hold, her feet scrambling on the marble uselessly as she attempted to find her footing or at least kick him one.

"LISTEN TO ME!" Dr. Raines shouted, shaking her horribly.

Charlotte ceased struggling and sat there completely limp, tears streaking down her seemingly lifeless cheeks. Her nose had started to run into her mouth but she didn't wipe it away. She just sat there and sobbed silently, her breath hitching uncontrollably.

Dr. Raines leant in and kissed her on the lips, muffling the little whimper that had risen from the back of her throat. "Please believe me when I say I'm sorry." Then he reached out and pulled her head onto his shoulder and hugged her.

* * *

Charlotte lifted her chin to the ceiling and felt the tears slide from the sides of her eyes, blurring her vision. Dr. Raines continued to kiss her neck, his hands all over her thighs. Charlotte watched the stars on the ceiling slide in and out of focus as though obscured by clouds on an overcast night, and slid her hands down the older man's back, pulling him right up against her so that she could all but feel his heart. The chair couldn't decide whether it wanted to overbalance or not and the clock ticked away the afternoon hours just as it always did.

(END OF FLASHBACK)

* * *

Charlotte awoke to meet the eyes of her three-year-old son, her vision blurred by tears.

"Mummys, are you is okay?" the little boy asked in a wobbly voice as though scared.

Charlotte pulled her hands from between her skirt and sat, reaching out her arms for the little boy. "Come to mama, baby."

The little boy cautiously approached his mother and was scooped up into her waiting arms and warm embrace.

"Oh, baby, I don't know what I'd ever do without you," she told him through sniffing. "Don't you ever think about leaving me, my little one. Don't you dare! Mummy would never stand for it! You hear me, young man?"

The little boy closed his eyes tight and hugged his mother. "Yes mummy."

Charlotte squeezed her little boy tight and buried her head in his scruffy hair. "I love you, my baby. Never forget that your mama loves you. I love you so much. If someone ever came and took you away from me, I don't know what I'd do. I suppose I'd just lie down and go to sleep and forget to breathe. I could never live without you, my little one."

The little boy sniffed and hoped with all his might that he wouldn't cry, but his mummy was scaring him and he didn't want her to be sick and die.

"I love you," his mother told him in a delicate voice, as though, were she to speak any louder, it may shatter and be lost forever.

"I love you too, mummy," the little boy whispered, his eyes stinging from trying not to cry.


	9. Chapter 9

Lyle sat up against the grey metal bed head, smacking the back of his head into the wall. That girl was just bloody crazy and he was damned if he would spend his precious time worrying over her, yet, that was exactly what he _was_ doing.

It was driving him up the wall. He had tried reading that stupid book of hers but it had just pissed him off so he had ripped the stupid thing up.

At half past eleven a pretty little nurse came in to give him his meds. She was brunette, with a pretty little pair of black ankle boots decorated with pink polka dots and frills.

"Time for your medication, sir," she announced in a bright cheery voice.

Lyle smiled and edged forward, holding out his hand for the little cup they administered all those little pills in. The girl handed over the pills and turned back to pass him his water from the trolley. Seizing his opportunity, Lyle grabbed the girl from behind and held her fast, placing a little pressure on her breathing, just to scare her a little, smiling when she gave a little scream. "I killed some folk, little girl. What does that suggest to you? Leave! Me! The fuck! Alone!"

"Please let go," the girl pleaded in a wavering voice, desperately attempting to maintain control. "I know you don't want to hurt me."

Lyle laughed. "Oh don't I now?" and pushed his arm further into her throat.

The girl flailed about a bit but she didn't seem to want to scream for the life of her, and Lyle was damned if he was going to give up halfway.

"Please… sir… I can't… can't breathe…" she rasped.

Lyle snickered. "Oh, I'm dreadfully apologetic, young lady. P'r'aps I could help you with that?" He bit his lip, pondering to himself. "Nah!" Having made up his mind, he shook his head.

"Can't… brea… the…" the girl whispered.

"No, I wouldn't imagine so," he replied.

The girl scrabbled desperately with his arm.

Lyle smiled to himself and whispered in the girl's ear. "There's a good girl, now, why don't you give us a nice little scream?"

The girl took a deep breath, half choking in the attempt. "Please!" she beseeched in barely more than a whisper.

Lyle sighed to himself. "SCREAM, YOU STUPID THING!"

"Can't… BREATHE!" the girl hollered without any air.

An intern who was walking by heard the commotion and soon security was called in and the whole matter sorted out, the patient being sedated.

* * *

"Please, sir," the girl pleaded, "He didn't mean anything by it. I'm sure I must have threatened him somehow and he just thought he was doing what was in his best interest." She brushed the doctor aside who was attempting to assess her state of health, and took chase after the head of the branch. "Please! You must listen to me! I don't think he meant to hurt me, he was just scared. I'm sure of it!"

The doctor turned and shot her a sharp look. "I do believe this girl is suffering from shock and is, at this point in time, incapable of controlling her ranting." He turned to his fellow doctor and nodded. "Have her sedated her and have her put in the Recovery Room. Give her some time to sleep it off, and then have her see the counsellor."

"No!" the girl screamed, struggling against the three nurses who were attempting to control her. "No, you can't do this!" The doctor shook his head. It was all very depressing really. "No! No! Somebody help me!" Young girls could be problematic like that, and they always seemed to take a shine to the wrong ones. He was thankful his own daughter was not yet interested in boys. Well, why would she be, she was just a girl really, fourteen was hardly a young woman.

He massaged his forehead and contemplated how the girl had gotten permission to be on that ward in the first place. It was obvious now why the man had been appointed his own nurse. He would have to have a word with this Mr. Parker fellow about his son's mental condition. He didn't think he felt safe in having this man in his hospital and not on some sort of meds to control him if he truly was mentally ill.

Stopping at the corner, he turned and shot the doctor in charge of this wing a reproachful glare. They would be having words later on about this. He didn't want to have to put independent security on each separate ward, but he didn't want patients flipping and suddenly killing each other, or worse, his staff. He wondered if the answer turned out to be 'yes' if he should suggest Mr. Parker have his son transferred to an institute where he could be properly looked after, properly controlled.

The Manager sighed and stepped into his office, asking his secretary to kindly look up that Parker fellow from Blue Cape or some such place.

* * *

The Manager shook his head. "What do you mean, the girl isn't listed on our staff?"

"That's exactly what I mean, sir," the security officer replied, quite red in the face now from embarrassment.

The Manager held up a hand. "No. Stop. If you're saying what I think you're saying- How could this happen?" He puffed out a sigh and shook his head again. "Well, do we at least know who the girl is? Have we got a name? Was any ID found on her?"

The security officer nodded now. "Yes, sir. Her name is Morgana Rooper. A medical student from up Dover way, sir. But I can't think what she'd be doing all the way down here."

The Manager growled. "Well, Hell, I'll have to call the coppers in on this one. This is serious, this is!" and he stomped off like an angry rhinoceros.

* * *

Mr. Parker sighed and had his secretary, Rita, get onto the phone with the Triumvirate representative, as, to the best of his knowledge, he hadn't been aware of the fact that his son had needed meds for his condition. He had heard, however, that the Triumvirate had appointed him one of their own doctors. He hardly figured that he could have missed Abel's incessant ranting. His little brother had always had a bit of a mouth and it always seemed to get worse any time he had a little to drink. James had always put it down to that mother of his, grotty little thing; bad blood in her, that one had had, bad genes. _Poor Abbey!_

He sighed, taking up in his seat behind his desk. Well, if the boy needed to be put on meds, the boy would just have to be put on meds. He was still sceptical himself.

The boy had always seemed far too temperamental for a Parker. His Angel had learnt her way finely, but that boy, that boy really was a bit of a problem. What with his getting in trouble with just about every authority under the sun. He didn't care if the boy was slightly retarded or whatever it was they called it these days – autism – that was no excuse when it came to remembering who he was – a damned Parker, for God's sake!

* * *

Morgana awoke to be greeted by several police officers and knew she was in trouble now. She didn't think the police officers would believe her that it had all just been part of a silly little dare, and that she hadn't meant to let it get so out of hand the way it had.

* * *

The detective shook his head. "Well, damn me if I can figure this one out! There are no records of the girl preceding 1998. It's as if she simply doesn't exist."

* * *

Morgana spoke in a bored voice: "I was livin' with me old woman pending my skippin' town in 1998."

"A runaway, hey?" the interviewing woman asked. "And how old were you then?"

"Fifteen," Morgana replied, a disdainful look upon her face.

"I see. And you continued on with your schooling?"

"Yes," the 24-year-old droned, rolling her brown eyes.

"You were placed into – what? – third form?"

"Second form," the girl corrected, hardly stuffed.

The interviewer jotted a few things on her pad. "And your mother, she wasn't worried when you left, she didn't try looking for you?"

The young woman snorted, incredulous. "No."

"Your mother's name if you please."

Morgana huffed and snapped her elastic band. "Morgan Cooper," she huffed, running her tongue along her bottom lip.

The interviewing officer noted the mother's name and looked up once more. "And where is it that you were located at the time of your runaway."

Morgana looked up to meet the lady officer's gaze. "Canada," she replied, her voice plain with a touch of drollness.

The woman nodded and decided to take a different tack. "And your father? He lives here in America."

Morgana shrugged. "I guess so, yeah. Had one of those bleedin' accents that ya hear in those bumpkin movies about folk affected by radiation and into all sorts likes 'o eating one ee-nother."

"Your parents weren't married?"

Morgana snorted. "Hell no, ma'am!" she replied as though massively amused, seemingly having some difficulty in keeping from laughter.

"Your father's name being?"

Morgana snorted. "How the Hell should I know? Mum never spoke of him and Hell, I was – what? – three when he dumped mum. How the Hell d'you expect me to re-member 'is name from that long ago?"

The officer ignored the young woman's sarcasm and continued in an even tone. "So, your father left your mother in 1986?"

"Dah!"

"Could you tell us a little bit about why you left home?"

Morgana snorted. "The old woman was pissin' me off, wadn't shay! Talk about a big fat hypocrite!"

The woman officer stood and excused herself to confer with her colleagues.

Morgana smacked her hand on the metal table in time with the music playing over the radio out in the hall, doing a little guitar routine, and pushed her chair back to rest her boots on the metal table.

* * *

Sam took Kate for the day, whilst Parker drove down to Pomeroy with Deb. The way Broots told it: Deb's friend, Marg or some such, had gone missing a week ago. Deb had reported her missing to the police and they had informed her that she was no longer missing, simply displaced. So Deb was going down to see her now.

"So, what's she like, this Marg?" Parker asked. "I don't have to be worried about you an' her, do I?"

"Marg? It's actually Morgana. She's my best-friend," Deb laughed and took a deep breath. "Gee, what can I say? She's a Goth, which is about the first thing people notice about her, the way she dresses. She's a Medical student, same as me. She has amazing time when it comes to music and she can dance like nothing else. Of course, her fat arse does help. I'm always so jealous. But she does have asthma and that's why she drinks so much coffee. I think she speaks about a bunch of languages which is really creepy when she starts talking to someone and you're like 'What?'. But she's a great girl really. She's one of those people, if you know what I mean, a people person."

"Yeah, I think I know what you mean," the older woman agreed. "She sounds like an interesting character."

Deb smiled. "She has her moments."

"And her parents, what do they do?"

Deb's smile faded and was not replaced. "She, um, she doesn't talk about her parents," the young woman told the car at large, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear nervously.

Parker tilted her head and looked across at Deb briefly. "She doesn't?"

Deb sighed. "No."

"So-?"

"She said her daddy was from Nebraska. But that's about the most of it. She has this badge see."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. One of those silly souvenirs. It says: I love Nebraska! So I asked her if she'd been and she said that's where her daddy was from."

Parker nodded, watching the road. "She, um- Why doesn't she talk about her parents? You ever ask?"

Deb looked out the side window. "No."

Parker sighed and decided to leave it there. She had the impression she was depressing the girl.

* * *

Dani stood leant against the wall, arms crossed, waiting for her patient to wake up so they could go off to Mr. Nine-o'clock-on-the-dot's office and discuss the situation with his behaviour and these meds he was supposed to have been on back home in Blue Cod.

"You?" she blurted in an accusing tone when she noticed he was awake, and tossed her head in the direction of the trash by the door. "You owe me a new book, mister!"

Lyle huffed and turned the other way. "Leave me alone. I'm tired."

Dani raised her eyebrows. "Heard about your little escapade yesterday."

Lyle huffed and chucked his pillow at her, shoving his blanket off him and stormed off toward the door.

Dani snorted. "Guess who's in a snotty mood this morning!" Dani ran to catch him up and grabbed his arm, smacking his hand away when he turned to shove her away. "Now you be-have, you hear me?"

Lyle shot her an evil glare and tried to pull away from her.

Dani clicked her tongue. "Oh no you don't!" Finally, she let go of his arm. "Don't you embarrass me now!" she warned, striding out in front of him to push the left door open.

Lyle gave her a pretty little smile. "You're not my bloody mother," he snarled under his breath.

Dani stopped and turned to face him. "Well, ain't I now? You just watch that pretty liddle mouth o' yours! I wouldn't like to think you is fixin' for a slap?"

Lyle smiled contemptuously. "No, ma'am!"

Dani shot him a last warning look and went on in front of him half a step.

* * *

Parker ran and hand through her hair, turning on the spot. "Shit!"

The officer grinned. "Yeah."

"Impersonating a medical nurse?"

The officer nodded, that same grin on his face. "Yes, ma'am. Just up there on Mina Road."

"The hospital?"

"Yes, siree."

"And she's – what – illegally occupying residency, did you say?"

"Yup! Says she's from Canada, ma'am."

"What about her parents?"

"Tried to get in touch with that mother o' hers."

"And?"

"No luck. Been ringin' all sorts since eight-thirty. Consulate, all sorts of official departments. Right pain in the behind – that girl."

"And this mother, she got a name?" Parker asked, shaking her head. _What a mess!_

The officer referred to his clipboard. "Yeah. Morgan Cooper."

Parker froze. "Wh-what? Morgan Cooper?"

"That's what it says, ma'am. Asked the little bugger meself this mornin'."

"M-O-R-G-A-N?"

The officer tossed his head to one side. "Cluey, we are!"

Parker placed her hands over her face momentarily. "No, I went to school with her. Well, with _a_ Morgan Cooper."

The officer grinned, straightening in his chair. "Yeah?"

"Yeah." Parker sighed. "Well there's one Morgan Cooper you can cross off your list. Morgan died in '82. Fifteen years old." Parker sighed again. "Oh God!" She cast around the room suddenly and promptly took a seat by the wall, dropping her face into her hands. "Oh God, Morgan, I'm so sorry! I'm so so sorry…"

* * *

Deb came back from the coffee machine to find Parker crying over in the corner and the police officer she had been talking to earlier stunned as though someone had clobbered him one across the mouth.

"Parker?" Deb asked, placing the two coffees down on the desk the policeman was sitting behind, and ran over to the older woman, falling down on her knees. "Parker?"

Parker sniffed and looked up at the younger woman. "It's okay, Debbie," she told the girl, "I'm fine."

"Parker, you're crying?"

Parker sniffed again. "I know." She rubbed the heel of her hands into her eyes and sniffed a third time before getting heavily to her feet. "I-I can't believe I had forgotten her. I really am fine now, Debbie. She was- she was just so young. She had so much good in her left to give. I'm just being terribly silly." She laughed and leant her head against her hand, her elbow rested on her knee.

Deb got up and sat down on the chair beside Parker. "Were you and her very good friends?"

Parker smiled fondly. "The best. I remember she used to get me into all sorts of trouble. She was always doing something. She was just so… alive…" She laughed again. "Ah, heck, but that's in the past. Let's see if we can't get us into see this friend of yours. Don't you worry about a thing, Debbie, I'll sort it all out."

Deb smiled and hugged the older woman. "Thank you, Parker."

Parker sniffed. "Well don't be thanking me too early."

Deb giggled and Parker laughed along with her.


	10. Chapter 10

"They want what?" Dani asked.

"A review of the patient's psychological condition."

Dani shook her head. "Psychological condition? What psychological condition?" she demanded.

"It-it's only reasonable," the doctor began, shifting uncomfortably behind his desk.

'Are you suggesting that my patient is of questionable mental health?" Dani stormed.

Lyle, sitting beside her, flinched. He couldn't understand what she was getting so worked up about. It was plain as sunshine that he was crazy.

"My patient is not crazy!" Dani shouted, thumping her hand on the doctor's desk.

Lyle took a sobering breath and sighed. The girl was really starting to scare him. Any moment now, she would dive across the desk and grab the poor doctor by the front of his clothes and throttle him to death with just her hands.

"Look, now, Miss Alistair," the doctor explained, "there is really no need to be getting so worked up. The decision was not mine. I have been in touch with the patient's doctor – who I am, as you know very well, acting on the behalf of – and they have indicated that they would like a re-evaluation of the said patient's mental condition so that they will be able to best adjust his medication to suit the prognosis."

Dani got to her feet, pushing the chair clean over. "Prognosis? What prognosis? I was not aware that there was any question as to my patient's mental stability! I do believe I have read the case file also, and if you are suggesting you find my work slack, then you had best find yourself a good lawyer!"

"Ho!" The doctor jumped to his feet. "Nobody is suggesting lawyers, Miss Alistair!"

Dani crossed her arms resolutely. "Is that so?" She took a sobering breath and met the doctor's gaze unflinchingly. "Does it state, anywhere on that shitty piece of paper, that my patient has any sort of mental questionability, explicitly or inexplicitly, _doctor_?"

The doctor cleared his throat. "The patient had been prescribed several-"

"_I_ don't _care_ what the patient has been prescribed in the past! I am _asking_ you a fairly simple question! Now, either you can answer me, or either you can't. Which is it?"

The doctor sighed. "No, it does not state the nature of which the medication was prescribed for."

Dani threw her arms out as though presenting some sort of circus act, and tossed her head to one side. "There you go! Doctor!" she stated, as though someone recently having found enlightenment.

Turning on her heel, she took Lyle by the arm and proceeded in dragging him from the room.

"In that case," Dani informed him, "I suggest this meeting is over. Good day, doctor!"

* * *

Lyle stopped and turned to Dani out in the hall. "What was that?"

Dani looked in the other direction. "What did it look like?"

Lyle shook his head. "You're crazy, completely crazy!"

Dani growled and spun around to face him, her expression cold and strict. "Well does it?" she demanded. "Does the fucking thing list any sort of verifiable cause for such medication being prescribed?"

"No."

Dani placed a hand over his mouth, causing him to step back violently. "NO! End of story!" And with that, she took her leave and marched off up the hall.

Lyle took chase. "Dani, you don't want to do this."

Dani huffed, crossing her arms tight across her chest. "Don't I?"

Lyle shook his head. "No," he replied in a gentle voice. "These things can be negotiated diplomatically."

Dani stopped abruptly in the middle of the hall and turned back to him. "So basically – we're more powerful than you! Keep your mouth shut or we'll make sure that it stays that way – permanently!"

Lyle shook his head, looking cross now. "Dani, you don't want to do this."

Dani took a step forward. "Don't _you_ tell _me_ what I want to do!"

Lyle grabbed her upper arms. "Dani, are you listening to yourself? This is not on! They _will_ kill you, and if you run, they will find you, and then they'll find all your little family and kill them too! You! Do not! Want to do this! Trust me – you cannot win!"

Dani scowled and pulled away from him. "Chicken shit!" she hissed under her breath, sweeping off down the hall.

Lyle ran after her and blocked the doorway. "Look, Dani, this thing is bigger than simply you or I. This thing is bigger than the entire goddamn country! Now will you listen to me when I'm trying to tell you something?"

Dani snorted, avoiding his eyes, and acting as though she hadn't heard him at all.

"There are things out there you couldn't even think to dream of. There is so much you don't know, and even if you did – you cannot fight them, Dani. Can't you see? This is what I'm trying to tell you. If it is only me you are concerned for, trust me when I say, I'm not worth it!

"There is so much to fight for out there, so much good still to be done, or indeed found. So many people who deserve so much better. So much of life for us still to discover. But guess what, Dani? That's not me. When it comes to all of those things, I don't count. You can't compare one person to an entire world. It isn't right. And I know that may hurt. But it isn't right. And you know what? You can't compare yourself to me. You, Dani, are worth so much, you just don't realise it yet. But someday, perhaps you will. So just give it up, just this once! I'm not worth it, Dani, truly I'm not." He shrugged.

"Besides, it's not as though I've had a perfect life up until now. I've had worse, Dani, and I'll get through it. I always do. What else is there to do?"

Dani laughed suddenly. "You just love yourself, don't you? You should listen to yourself for once! You think you're so brave because 'oh, poor me'! But you just make me sick! Don't you ever think that someone else has the right to be concerned about you?" Lunging forward, she pushed him backward, into the room.

"And who says I'm concerned about you any-fucking-how! It's the fucking principle! How are we ever going to build a better society, a better way of living, something more stable for our children, if we're all so fucking scared of our own shadow that we don't get off our couches for fear that if we move the damn thing'll swallow us?"

Lyle sighed. "I'm not kidding you here, Dani, these are real threats I'm talking about, and if you don't want to listen- Fine! Go ahead and get yourself fucking killed! But you are not going to bring me, or that doctor back there, down with you!"

Dani snorted. "You truly are pathetic, do you know that! You actually think someone would give a shit about you? You actually think you mean something in this world? That's fucking hilarious, that is! God, you're pathetic!"

Lyle grabbed her shoulders and shook her. "No _you're_ pathetic!" he told her. "You think you're so fucking clever that you can't even be bothered listening." Dani struggled against his hold, glowering horribly. "Grow! Up!" he enlightened her and shoved her away from him. Dani fell back with a thud and a squeal, landing on the bed behind her.

* * *

Charlotte stood out in the backyard, taking in the wet washing. Judging by the grey sky, the rain wasn't looking to clear up any time soon. She puffed a little in the damp air, folding the various items and placing them in the washing basket.

It was pouring down buckets, but she really couldn't be bothered to go inside. It was too stuffy and she felt as though she were trapped in some sort of air-tight box. She just needed to think. The fresh air would help clear her head.

She lay back on the wet grass and mushy earth and felt the rain on her cheeks, on her face, on her arms. Pulling the dress skirt up her thighs, she closed her eyes and felt the rain on her legs like a soft caressing massage.

* * *

(FLASHBACK)

Dr. Raines sat at the kitchen table in Charlotte's flat, tracing the pattern of buzzing bees around the plastic tablecloth. The humming florescent strip on the ceiling sung a little song in the back of his head. For a time, it all became so much clearer. It was as though he were the centre of some great big black hole in space and all the feeling were being sucked into this great big black hole. He could feel so much, it almost made him want to laugh. This was his gift. This was what he had been born to do.

Charlotte came in from the hall with the fish-and-chips from the takeaway shop. On her way past, she kicked the leg of the chair he was sitting on.

He hadn't been very talkative all afternoon and she thought that maybe he was in a shitty with her for some stupid reason only he could think up in that sick fucked-up mind of his.

She dropped the fish-and-chips on the kitchen table and went over to the sink, taking two mismatched glasses from the orange wire draining rack, and filled them with water from out of the tap. She didn't take much notice of the syringe at first. It could have been anything.

Plonking the glasses down on the table with a wooden chink, she went around the table and grabbed the older man's arms to shake him. The kitchen table was no place to sleep! That was what the goddamn bedroom was for!

She only realised that something wasn't entirely as it should be when she shook him. He was far too relaxed to simply be asleep. With a jolt she let go, remembering the syringe in the sink. He was burning up, she had felt as much, and it wasn't hard to see if she took proper notice.

Running back to the sink, she pulled her sleeve up over her hand and reached into the sink to snatch the syringe up. Her heart sunk. It was the serum T-Corp had given her. In case she came up against any unwanted opposition of the perceptive kind. In other words, some sort of rogue Healer or Empath who would want to stop her carrying out her mission.

She dropped the syringe, confused, and shook her head, frantically rubbing her hands across her face. No – this just couldn't be happening! Why- Why would he do something like that? It was completely crazy! Illogical! She shook her head, rambling to herself. She wasn't thinking straight. She needed to think. But all she seemed capable of saying was "no", over and over and over.

She had to get him on the floor. He would start convulsing soon. The serum needed to be absorbed rapidly; the convulsions helped, somehow. She couldn't remember how. She couldn't remember if she had even been told. She needed to do something, she needed to give him something to stop the convulsions.

Any convulsions later on were a sign of toxic shock; anaphylactic shock, an allergy. But the more you fought it, the more it got to you. It was really designed to take down Healers and Reapers, and those ones were tough buggers to kill, even just the Gen One Healers. And she was pretty sure that's what he was. He still had the tattoo on the inside of his left arm; the three letters, hyphen and three numbers.

Later, they had upgraded to nanotechnology as a means of tracking and identifying their subjects. The technology had originated in Africa in the early 60s and integrated mechanical with biological. Bio-mech, was what they called them. They had a wide variety of purposes they could be put to, and were getting quite popular.

The point was, he had to be either a G1 or a very early G2.

She very quickly realised she didn't have the necessary equipment just lying around her flat. She would need to go somewhere where there was just such equipment. Her first though was the Centre. Their Med Space had a lot of new and innovative technology.

She didn't see herself as having any other choice.

* * *

She was halfway to the Centre when a thought occurred to her. She couldn't just turn up with the head of Med Space in the back of her car. How would that look? Awful! She had to leave him for someone else to find.

She started to panic.

It hadn't been her fault, not really. How he had even known about the drug, she had no way of knowing, but it wasn't as if she had given it to him. It wasn't her fault and she wasn't going to take the fall for his stupidity. He was a Healer. He would be okay. What was a few more hours? He would be okay. This was his thing.

She dropped him off at his house and made it look as though he had simply gone to bed. She found the keys in his wallet in his coat. It was a nice house. She would have liked to have been invited in under different circumstances, but she knew that would never have happened in a million years.

The sound of a car starting up somewhere on the street brought her to her senses and she realised she had no time to sit on the couch and think how nice of a couch it was. So she went home and went to sleep, and even though she had to drink quite a bit of scotch to sleep, she didn't go back. He would be okay. She didn't even know why she was worrying. She shouldn't have been worrying. So when she got up at three in the morning, she drank some more scotch and fell asleep in front of the silent television, blaring some quiz show that she wasn't particularly fond of. He would be okay.

* * *

She was late to work the next day and arrived to find Dr. Cox busy with some L3s who had just been on Field and gotten themselves into a nasty spot of bother with the Feds, those of them who were still alive, that was.

It wasn't until midday that Sam, who she later found out was Dr. Raines's adopted son, had went around to his father's house and brought him in. He had been completely unresponsive by then, as though in some sort of coma, and Sam had been fairly worried. He had never seen his father that sick before, he told one of Dr. Cox's nurses when they asked what had been happening of late. Charlotte presumed it was the pale one, Cherry. The other one had a sort of Latino tan and was nicknamed Plum. The whole stupid idea had been Lyle's idea. That was why they were the Cherry Plums. That boy was forever giving things stupid nicknames. Dr. Cox was known mostly as Frankie because of that idiot boy, Dr. Frankenstein Reincarnate.

More to the point, Dr. Cox had been busy at the time and so Charlotte had been assigned charge of Dr. Raines.

* * *

It had taken eighty-five hours, a little over three and a half days, but the serum had done its job in the end. Charlotte had almost been glad, but then there had been the enquiry. It was a little while after things had been cleared up with that that she had found out about Julius.

She had been scared then. She was going to have a baby and she was going to have to do it on her own. What would other people think, and what would they say? But most importantly, what would she say, if the child ever asked about its father? And she was pretty sure there was only one person that could be. Only problem was – he was dead!

(END OF FLASHBACK)

* * *

Charlotte lay in the rain with her eyes closed, remembering how she had lain on top of Dr. Raines to feel his heart beating. If she thought about it, she could still remember the rhythm. It had been just like anyone else's. She had been thinking about how he might make it up to her when he got better, although in reality she knew he didn't consider her in that capacity and wouldn't have wasted his effort, when he had started convulsing uncontrollably.

Charlotte opened her eyes to find someone leant over her, shaking her. A very familiar someone, and she figured she must have still been dreaming, and somehow she found herself less afraid of him. She sat and reached out a hand for his face, feeling the stubble on his cheeks. This brought a smile to her lips and she leant across and took his face in her hands and kissed him.

She was shivering terribly, but she had forgotten all about that until she had kissed him, and he had felt so soft and warm pressed up against her, even through their wet clothes.

Charlotte sat back on her folded legs and pushed the skirt of her flimsy, and now almost transparent flower print dress, slowly upward to reveal her pale thighs. Taking up his hands, she turned each over as though to inspect for grubbiness and planted a soft kiss in each of his palms, placing his hands first upon her thighs, and then sliding them in between the gap where one leg touched the other.

William watched her fall back upon the grass, their united hands very nearly reaching their destination now, and didn't have the heart to wake her from her dream.

* * *

Julius watched from his window, blurred with rain like tears, and hoped his mummy would invite the man in afterward.


	11. Chapter 11

"Why did you grab that girl?" Dani asked, unbuttoning her pea coat.

Lyle looked away from his nurse and out the window, the most part of which was rain and more rain. "I was thinking about you," he answered honestly.

Dani snorted and folded her coat over her arm, placing it on the bed beside the one she was seated on.

It had been two days since their latest argument and following two days of Lyle not uttering a single word to her, she had gone to the doctor and scheduled this re-evaluation thingy.

"I was thinking about you, but I didn't want to be thinking about you, so I thought, if I could get myself sedated, then I would be asleep and I wouldn't have to think about you, at the very least, I wouldn't remember thinking about you."

Dani shook her head, laughing softly to herself. "What, just the thought of me is gonna melt your brain?"

Lyle smiled. "Something like that, yeah."

Dani sighed and lifted her shoes up onto the bed where she had put her chequered black-and-white coat. "So, did you dream about me?"

Lyle snorted. "Fat chance! What would I be going dreaming about you for?"

Dani shrugged. "Oh, I dunno. Maybe a nice little bit of recreational therapy."

"I hope you're talking about checkers there," Lyle told her.

"What do you think I was talking about?" she asked, turning her head in his direction, although she couldn't properly see him as they were sitting back to back.

Lyle snorted to himself and didn't say anything.

Dani rolled her eyes at his immaturity. After a while she got bored with all the silence. "Do you want to?"

"What, play checkers?"

Dani shrugged. "I don't know so much about what they're calling it these days, but if you want to call it checkers, by all means."

"Do you?"

"Want to play checkers?" she contemplated. "No."

"Oh."

Dani sighed to herself. RT with the homicidal retard? Well, that would be one she could talk about at tea parties, in the very least. And he was a guy, not too bad looking either. "I don't think I know how to play checkers actually," she admitted.

"You don't? Come on, it's checkers!"

"Do you?"

"No."

Dani burst into laughter and nudged him forward by throwing herself backward. "You filthy hypocrite!"

"Hypo-what? Do I look like a hippopotamus to you, woman?"

Dani, who had been trying to control her laughter, burst into a fresh bout. "Hypocrite, not hippopotamus – you _stupid_ boy!"

Lyle huffed. "Whatever!"

Dani continued to laugh as though she were some sort of mad woman.

* * *

Parker walked alongside Deb, the youth looking pale and anxious. A doctor had just finished assessing Morgana's health, and everything looked to be in order and her asthma was noted. The two women were now free to see the detainee, and Parker fully intended to question the girl, time permitting. Why had she run away in the first place, and how had she been stupid enough to get caught out impersonating a nurse and why.

Parker's mind was working overtime on the greater legal implications involved here.

The two women were checked for any dangerous items and led to a cell. Morgana was lying on her bed, gazing up at the ceiling, when the door was opened. Deb was the first to move, rushing over and pulling her friend, who had been in the process of sitting up, into a hug.

It was only when Deb released her friend and the girl stood to introduce herself to Parker, that the older woman, instantly recognising the resemblance with her long dead friend, that she suddenly felt faint, and swayed precariously before lurching forward only to be caught by the girl who was so much like her mother that it made Parker want to cry.

Parker simply sat on the bed, her head on the stocky girl's shoulder, Deb on her other side rubbing her back gently. It was a few minutes until the woman spoke at all, and then it was a confused croak. "How?"

"My mother was very young when I was born," Morgana explained. "I didn't know at the time how young, but I later learnt that she had been barely more than fourteen."

Parker said very little, slow tears leaking down her cheeks. She sniffed suddenly and looked around at the girl. "My friend was fifteen when she died in '82. You-you were born in '83. How can that be?"

"I may not have inherited much in the way of looks from my father, but he did give me one other thing. I believe the term frequently referred to is a 'medium'."

Parker brushed at her eyes, upset. "Your father was an Empath?"

Morgana squinted. "Empath?"

"People able to see, hear, feel things from objects they touch."

Morgana smiled. "The theory is correct. I have come to learn over the years that the true nature of my kind, as similar to that of any Healer, has been considerably dulled over the many many years in which our kind was shunned and burnt as heretics. But every so often, the gift is expressed in its entirety. Nobody really knows why. It just happens."

Parker sniffed again. "What- what does that mean?"

"Such individuals often appear cut off from the world the rest of us seem to inhabit, often appearing as though they do not feel the same way that others around them do, but it is simply that they feel so much that they do not know how to express it within the narrow confines of society and so these feelings or abilities remain hidden within."

"Morgana we need to find your father."

Morgana, who had been keeping attentive eye contact with the woman up until now, looked away abruptly. "He won't want to see me," she replied simply.

Parker shook her head. "How can you say that when you haven't even met him?"

"I have met him," was all the reply the girl gave, stubborn to the last.

Parker snickered. "Oh and like he's going to remember you! How old were you when he left? Three!"

Morgana sniffed. "I look just like her, don't I?"

Parker sighed. "Whatever the dispute between your parents, that has absolutely nothing to do with you!"

The girl snorted suddenly. "You don't understand! He didn't leave my mother, he killed her. When I said I had been living with my mother, I lied. I had been under the care of a facility known as ISIS. I'm sure you are aware of their function and whom they are an off-shoot of. The very same Centre that you are currently employed under!"

Parker shook her head. "You look so much like her, but you can't possibly be her daughter. The timing is all wrong!"

Morgana snorted again. "That's because her mother put her up two grades so that, were the Centre on the look out for her, they may just overlook her altogether."

"Morgan died," Parker told the girl, unyielding. "I saw her die. I was the one driving the car in the first place, and I was the one who crashed the damn thing! Hell, she had a- gidget- metal thingy stuck straight through her chest! Like a goddamn kebab!" Parker smacked a hand over her mouth at the memory but remained seated. "There was no way- no goddamned way, someone could live through that!"

Morgana smiled grimly. "There is if the school of horrors you were attending was a training ground for fresh young T-Corp operatives."

Parker shook her head. "They were just stories I made up in my head to deal with Morgan's death, just some sick way of justifying it in my mind that it wasn't _my_ fault!" she spat.

Morgana shook her head softly. "They weren't stories, Melody. My mother was a Mediator, and through her you were able to resist the training just enough to come to your senses and take her advise when she suggested you run away together."

Parker stared at the girl with wide eyes. No one had called her Melody for such a long long time. Born Melody Jezebel Parker; at the age of five, her mother had changed her name to Jezebel Melanie, and preceding her marriage to Sam, she had once again rearranged her name to Melanie Jessica. "M-Morgan came to me after the accident. She gave me something, some sort of injection that made me sick. But I- I thought it was just my imagination playing tricks on me. I- I just left her there?"

Morgana nodded, looking apologetic. "She must have given you something to inhibit the Bio-mechanical components active in your system. I believe she also planted the suggestion in your mind that the things you had experienced at that school were just the overactive workings of a young woman's mind. She only wanted what was best for you."

Parker sniffed. "So they Healed her?"

Morgana nodded.

"And- and when she was sent to ISIS as an operative they couldn't get to her to Heal her again so she just died- just died?"

Again, the girl nodded.

Parker sniffed loudly. "How old was she?" she asked in a determinately firm voice.

"Seventeen," Morgana supplied.

Parker wiped her eyes again and straightened up, turning to the girl and grasping her upper arms. "You have to tell me his name, you have to tell me your father's name! I know you know! There's no use denying it!"

Morgana looked down to her lap. "What's the use? He doesn't want to know me, I told you before."

Parker scowled. "I couldn't give a shit what the fuck wants or doesn't want! I just want his name so I can go there and eradicate the fucking bastard!"

Deb gasped at Parker's misuse of the English language, smacking a hand over her mouth, her blue eyes massively wide. Morgana continued to stare at her hands grasped in her lap with hollow eyes.

"Morgana, I know this is hard to take in, but the motherfucker did away with your mother and then just left you there with those monsters! He deserves no less than a bullet to the head!"

Morgana sniffed loudly and walked over to the door, getting up from the bed. "The visitors wish to leave now, officer," she told the guard, who nodded and pulled the door open, ushering Deb through the doorway first.

Parker made to grab the girl, but Morgana pulled out of her grasp just in time, backing off into the wall with a dull thump.

"He doesn't deserve your protection, Morgana!" she told the girl. "He's nothing but a rotten individual who deserves to be treated no better than if he just crawled out of the gutter!"

Morgana turned to the wall and buried her face in her hands, sobbing to herself. "It was an accident," she whispered in a tiny voice. Turning back to her departing guests, she threw herself forward and smacked her hands against the glass. "It was an accident! He never meant for her to die! You don't understand – she was going to have a baby!" With a savage howl, the girl slid down the door and landed in a sobbing heap.

* * *

Dani sat knelt before Lyle, perfectly serious. Lyle stared back at her. Somewhere outside, the sound of lightening cut through the sombre afternoon air, startling the elder of the pair.

Dani snorted, shoving her palm into his shoulder. "Ah-hah! You blinked!" she laughed.

Lyle rolled his eyes, brushing her hand away. "Best out of three," he blurted suddenly.

Dani snorted again. "Oh-ho! Don't even think I'm dumb enough to fall for that one! The answer is no!" She grinned at her superior out-staring skills, impressed with her own good fortune.

Lyle grumbled under his breath.

Dani burst into raucous laughter and mouthed "NO".

"You cheated!" he burst out.

Dani snorted. "So, what, I just happen to have magic superpowers that enable me to command when and where lightening will strike?" she proposed incredulously.

Lyle shot her a 'too right' expression and nodded once, his arms crossed. "Damn straight!"

"You idiot!"

"So, I'm an idiot, at least I'm not a cheater!"

Dani growled and shoved him again. "Fine, idiot, we'll have a rematch, and then we'll see who's a sore loser!"

This time it was Lyle who snorted. "Yeah right!"

* * *

Dani reached out a careful hand and stroked the side of Lyle's face, intending for him to tell her off. She figured it wasn't against the rules, certainly nobody had specified it as being against the rules at the start of the game. Smacking her hand away, Lyle remained unaffected. Dani, intent on winning, pinched him hard in the leg.

"Ou!" Lyle yowled loudly.

"Dani scores! Dani wins! Whoa yeah! Go Dani! Da-ni! Da-ni! Da-ni!"

Lyle shot her a grumpy look and made to pinch her back. "Yeah, only cos you pinched me, you big fat cheat-er!"

Dani snorted, shoving him away from her. "Says who?" She widened her eyes dramatically in effort to illustrate her sorrow.

Lyle growled, rubbing his leg where she had pinched him.

Dani shot him a withering look. "We'll have another rematch if _you_ want," she told him, shrugging. "I don't care. I'll just win anyway! You're just too stuck up to admit that you suck at something and that a girl beat you twice!"

Lyle scoffed. "Girl? Hah! In whose vocaburary? Cow, more like!"

Dani laughed fakely and shot him a filthy glare. "Vocabulary, dumbarse!"

"Cow, cow!"

Dani narrowed her eyes in a glare. "Do you want a rematch or not, retard?"

"Don't you be pinching me again, Daisy!"

"Yes or no?"

"Fine!"

* * *

The sky had clouded over by three o'clock and the room was shuttered in a dull grey light. Parker sat in McDonald's, staring down into her coffee. She was thinking how she could persuade Morgana to give up her father's name, but then, she had a sneaking suspicion the girl would sooner die.

Deb didn't even try to start any sort of conversation. Parker could see the tears forming in her eyes, they had a sort of claustrophobic shine about them, the way a mirror could scare some people, the way the world always looked that little bit better from any other perspective. Parker wished she could have gone around and put an arm around the girl's shoulders, said a few words, but she was angry and scared and angry.

So she just sat and stirred her coffee until it was stone cold and she only ended up dumping it in the bin on the way out.

* * *

Dani took her fist from out of her thigh, the blood finally restoring its proper course of flow and colouring the skin on her right thigh underneath her black 7/8 turn-up jeans. Her wrist hurt like Hell from the pressure she had placed on it, but she didn't blink. She was staring at Lyle staring at her, and somehow she didn't even want him to blink. She thought that it would be like in those fairy tales she had read as a little girl, grossly over obsessed.

In the spare idle moments before sleep, she had imagined what her knight in shining armour must look like, scrunched up her eyes tight and twinkled her nose as though she thought that if she willed it enough she may be able divine his face into her dreams. She remembered entire afternoons trapped in stuffy heat in some dingy motel room that smelt of smoke and bleach and left her feeling breathless the way she always imagined her prince charming would.

Some times she had simply lay on her back on the floor and watched the ceiling fan go round and round, some times she tied some streamers to the ends and waited to see how long it would take for them to fall off. Other times she read those stupid girly magazines, the sort folks bought for no other reason than that they looked all shiny and massively pretty, the sort she sometimes palmed from the Laundromat.

She would get so bored some days, she would pick the dead bugs and moths and other icky things from the window ceil and sat scribbling away for hours, trying to find some likeness within the fibres of the pages of her useless old diary.

She spent far too long in the bathroom in front of the mirror, practising her nose wiggle, convinced that when she finally got it right, she could simply wish for her prince, give her nose a little twitch, and bam! there he would be.

She had tried for so long to imagine him. He had blue eyes, the exact shade the prince from Cinderella would have – were he human and not simply a cartoon – and dark hair. Dark was mysterious, that's what all the girls said, and mysterious was romantic, like moonlit strolls along a beach or dancing in the rain. She knew as soon as he saw her, he would fall in love instantly, and he would forget that she wasn't all blonde and leggy with perfect clear white skin like milk, or that her eyes were green instead of blue, or that her arse was a fat lump of a thing but her chest as flat as a pancake, and they would live happily ever after.

Sometimes she spent so much effort trying to scrub herself clean and white that her skin stung for hours afterward and always felt so tender in the scorching sun as though it were potato peel out to dry and would just go all brown and curl up like some deformed mummy in terrible agony.

She read Harmony's stories and never thought for one moment that romance could be grossly over-rated the way bacon was pumped full of salt and water. She was a very good reader for her age, her teachers always said. She was a bright girl. So she sat and day-dreamed of a love that would one day be hers, and the perfect happiness that would ever after accompany her.

She remembered reading certain passages over and over, trying to image any other arms holding her than her own, trying to image any other lips kissing her and not just her own stupid fingers, covered in to much muck from playing wars on the floor with the collection of mismatched plastic soldiers she had palmed here and there from the multitude of schools she had been to. Her secret army, they did whatever their queen commanded.

She hugged her pillow to her at night, and although she was only nine, and the pillow was so cold, she tried to imagine it made her feel safer just to have it there, less lonely as she watched trucker headlights bounce across the ceiling in the sweltering heat as though they could just peel themselves off the grotty ceiling and come to life, swarming around her like angry swallows making her dizzy.

She stared at him staring at her and thought it strange that although it scared her half to death and she so wanted to look away, at the same time she thought that she could miss that if it was ever taken away. There was a sort of innocence there and she thought that sometimes she could just tell him anything if her stupid mouth could have its way. She missed the sound of his voice when he was not around, missed the stupid things he said, or the way he always dramatised everything so much and she just couldn't not laugh. She missed the way he could be so stupidly ignorant because he existed in this funny sort of phase between reality and fantasy.

She stared at him and couldn't look away because if he left when she wasn't looking, then what would she have? So aside from the fact that she didn't have a life, she thought that, in another time, another place, they could have almost been friends, or as close to.

Somewhere in all of the endless jumble running through her head, she seemed to lose touch with what was real and what was not. And that could have been how she found herself leaning forward in the most inconspicuous way. Then again, it could have been that during all of that staring Lyle had developed mind control and hypnotised her as part of some sick little revenge trip for her magical lightening commandment binge earlier.

Anyway, whilst she was leaning forward, slowly inching closer and closer, Lyle remembered that she was a girl and therefore it followed that she had girl germs and if she breathed on him he would die in horrible agony. Admittedly, he hadn't believed it at the time when it had been told to him – come on, what four-year-old believes anything that isn't shiny and colourful and has some sugar or additive in it somewhere? But he sure as Hell believed it then, remembering that the boy had fallen to the ground and pretended to writhe in pain until the priest had come and told him in no uncertain terms to loco-mote his backside inside and start studying his bible.

But then time seemed to speed up, the way it did in those time-travel movies how the clocks all started spinning out of control, and Dani was right there in front of him and she had grabbed him and he wanted to scream, imagining she was some sort of zombie that had just sort of popped up out of the earth in the middle of a hospital ward and grabbed him with her little undead hands.

Dani leant across, her hands on his shoulders, and whispered through his hair, a tiny wisp of hot breath brushing his face occasionally, making it extremely hard not to blink. "Let's play a game."

He was suddenly too hot and didn't like the little whatever-it-was in her voice one bit. Like or trust. He realised how much he disliked the games little girls dreamed up. They were down right brutal, and, well, just not safe in general.

Dani held their gaze as she spoke. "Ever played make-believe? Well, it's kind of like that. Here's how it goes: first you've got to find a book; next, pick a page from that book, and lastly, whatever's on that page, you've got to act out. Winner gets to pick the book." She leant in closer, pressing more of her weight on his shoulders, playing on how uncomfortable she would be making him right now. She took a short sharp breath and held it, awaiting his consideration. "One blink for yes, two for no. What do your think?"

Petrified to move and taken off guard by the change in her breathing pattern which he had been unconsciously listening to, he fell straight for her trap and immediately hastened to blinked twice.

Dani kept a perfectly straight face for about half a second and then she just fell back and burst into raucous giggling. It was about then that Lyle realised that he had been had.

* * *

Parker stopped short of the car and turned back to Deb. "I was thinking, back in the" she pointed her thumb in the direction of the Macca's restaurant, "that… whilst I'm here, I may as well take advantage of the situation and pop by to visit my brother. I don't expect you'd be terribly overjoyed at the prospect, so… I don't mind if you stay in the car, or go for a walk." She shrugged. "Whatever. Just- No, you know what? I'll give you a ring on my mobile when I'm about ready to leave and you can make your way back to the car. How's that sound to you? Reasonable?"

Deb scratched her arm and looked up at Parker. "Could I… come in… with-with you… to meet your b-brother?" she asked cautiously.

Parker frowned. She didn't like the sound of Deb and her brother. Sometimes her brother got strange ideas and she didn't want Deb exposed to that. "I don't really know if that's entirely… appropriate," she told the young woman.

Deb grinned suddenly. "Hey, I'm not Asian. I figure, not his type. Besides, you wouldn't let anything bad happen to me. I know you wouldn't. You'd probably just shoot him if he opened his mouth to say something to me."

Parker didn't know whether she ought to be afraid or amused, so she laughed, the action fit both categories of emotion.

Deb laughed along with the older woman, a little embarrassed now.

"Alright then," Parker told her as she was buckling her seatbelt, "I guess you could tag along. If you don't tell your dad!"

Deb shook her head frantically. "Nooo."

"Just this once." She looked across at Deb for confirmation of action. The girl nodded and Parker sighed, putting the car into gear. What was she doing? She didn't know.

* * *

Parker took calming breaths, drumming her fingers on the laminex Receptionist desk, her eyes on Deb, standing by a rack of pamphlets, slowly scanning the titles as she rotated the rack.

"Good afternoon, ma'am. What can I do for you?"

Parker got her purse out of her handbag and pulled out her Driver's Licence, as she explained the reason for her visit. "I'm here to see my brother. Parker, Lyle. Melanie Parker-Raines."

The receptionist took the offered card and scrutinised it for a moment before handing it back over. "Very well," she sighed. "Go on up." She nodded to the elevators. "I don't know if you've been told already, but visiting hours are from eleven to four-thirty."

Parker nodded appreciatively. "No. I hadn't been told. And thank you."

Parker didn't ask for directions, so the receptionist figured the woman already knew.

Parker turned back to the windows and called out to the young woman. "Deb, we're up!"

Deb left the pamphlet rack and strolled up to the elevator, stopping beside Parker, who was becoming increasingly fretful by the millisecond.

* * *

Parker ran a hand through her hair as she waited for the elevator to arrive, absently humming along to the song playing over the radio in the foyer. She racked her brain to remember the name of the group. She knew the song, of course. It was something from her childhood. And then it hit her - Come see about me, the Supremes. She smiled to herself, remembering how she had danced to that very song over the radio with Edie and Annie, and how Annie and she had laughed when Edie had decided to sing it at the kitchen table over dinner, grumpy that her husband hadn't so much as asked her how she was since he had stepped in the door that evening.

The elevator gave a little chime and the doors opened.

Parker clapped a hand over her mouth, too shocked to even step back. "Oh my God!"

Deb smacked a hand over her mouth and turned away for a very different reason.

Lyle sprung away from Dani at the sound of his sister's scream, terribly embarrassed, and stood blubbering for a moment or two. Dani burst into one of her giggling fits and buried her face against the elevator wall.

Parker shook her head, seemingly incapable of words. She really did not want to know what her brother had been doing kissing his nurse like that against the wall in an elevator.

Lyle looked quite as horrified as his sister, and suddenly pointed to the corner adjacent, indicating the book on the floor as though somehow insinuating that it was all the book's fault and none of the blame lay with him. Parker could just imagine her brother trying to convey to her that the book was evil and that it was really the book that had put a spell on them somehow, and they hadn't really been in control of their actions until Parker mentioning God broke the spell. "Darcy!" Lyle burst out.

Parker opened her mouth. Deb expected her to start yelling all sorts of obscenities about her family's reputation. Instead, Parker just shut her mouth and turned on her heel and walked out of the hospital, Deb right behind her, trying very hard to keep the smirk from her face.

Lyle turned to Dani and shot her a horrible glare, but this just caused Dani – who had turned back around when she had spied Parker on her way out, peeking through her hands – to laugh even harder.

The receptionist looked up from her computer screen and shot Dani a dirty look. She was on the phone for God's Sake!

Lyle looked back to his sister and decided to take chase, before being stopped at the door as he was a patient who wasn't even supposed to be on this level. Lyle shot the security man an annoyed little glare. "SIS!" he screamed across the front car park. "IT'S NOT WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE!"

Parker snorted and froze in the middle of the car park. It had started to spit but she didn't notice. She turned abruptly and yelled back. "OH, IT'S EXACTLY WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE!" Then she burst into manic laughter. "I DIDN'T THINK SHE WAS YOUR TYPE – FAT LITTLE THING LIKE THAT?"

Lyle snorted. "SHE'S NOT MY TYPE! THAT'S WHAT I'M TRYING TO TELL YOU! IT WAS ALL HER STUPID IDEA IN THE FIRST PLACE! IT'S HARDLY MY FAULT THERE AREN'T ENOUGH SUCKERS IN THIS WORLD. I FELT SORRY FOR THE DREADFUL LITTLE THING. WHAT CAN I SAY?"

Deb blinked, appalled. What a pathetic, low thing to say!

Parker rolled her eyes. Her brother feeling sorry for someone was a bullet in the brain. "I COULDN'T CARE LESS WHAT YOU FUCK, JUST DON'T COME WHINGING TO ME WHEN SHE-GNOME RACKS UP A MASSIVE BILL ON YOUR CREDIT CARD AND THE DEBT-COLLECTORS ARE ON YOUR TAIL!"

"YOU THINK I WOULD ACTUALLY LET HER ANYWHERE NEAR MY MONEY?"

"IF SHE'S A GOOD SCREW, YOU'D BE SURPISED WHAT THEY CAN TALK YOU INTO, LITTLE BROTHER!"

Deb slid down the side of the nearest car, inadvertently setting of the alarm.

"OH SURE! I'M NOT THAT FUCKING BRAIN DEAD YET!" Lyle shouted over the car alarm.

Parker snorted. "DEBATABLE, LITTLE BROTHER!"

Lyle shook his head. "WHAT"S THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?"

Parker pressed the central locking to unlock the car and got into the driver's side front seat, calling back to her brother before slamming the car door shut. "EXACTLY WHAT IT SOUNDS LIKE!"

"WHAT?" Lyle turned on the spot, his hands in his hair. Sometimes his sister really pissed him off. Parker sped off and disappeared from sight. "Shit!" He turned back to the elevator to find the doors shut once more and Dani nowhere in sight. He kicked the stupid little low table magazines were kept on. "Fuck, woman, what is your problem?" He huffed and smacked on the button to get the elevator. If Dani wanted to be a child about these things, that was her problem! It was her fault in the first place, so he didn't see what she was complaining about!


	12. Chapter 12

Parker sat idly leant against her couch, idly observing a day-time soapie on the telly. Kate was asleep at the moment and Parker was bored out of her mind. Saturday afternoons drove her crazy sometimes.

It had been two weeks since she'd last seen her brother and she was in no hurry to do so again. Morgana had apparently lost it and in her attempt to escape custody, was shot three times before the officer felt safe that she was no longer a threat.

Parker, who was quite amazed the girl wasn't dead, had had her transferred from Pomeroy General to the Centre in Blue Cove. Her Daddy had managed to pull a few strings and the girl was announced officially dead and no longer a bother to anyone.

The only unfortunate part was that the research psychiatrist who had replaced Dr. Raines, one Dr. Merchant, had come across the girl in Med Space, and well, she just had to have her for her program.

Apparently, she had spent the most part of her career working with Empathic individuals and she could tell just like that that the girl was one.

Parker, who had immediately hastened to tell the woman what she could do with her pretty little scheme, had been over-ruled by the Tower, only to be informed later that the girl was Centre property anyhow and had no rights aside.

That was how Parker came to be watching that stupid soapie in her lounge, her tech in the kitchen on his lap, attempting to hack the ISIS secured network and having little success.

Parker wasn't about to let the bastards get away with fucking up her best-friend's daughter the way they had fucked-up Timmy, now known as Angelo. Kate had been exempted from Centre research programs of any sort, but Parker had a sneaking suspicion this was because her father wanted Kate to take over eventually.

It was a further half an hour before Broots was able to make any headway, but he said whoever had designed the system was, undoubtable, one kind of Pretender or another, because it was bloody genius. Parker, not having time for Broots's little school-boy awe sessions, told him in no uncertain terms to get a move on and find the girl's goddamned file already.

* * *

Broots, uncomfortable in the renewed silence, decided to start up a conversation. "You heard from your brother of late?"

Parker snorted. "No, and I have no immediate desire to either!"

Broots took a sip of his coffee and sighed inwardly. He had been referring to Ethan, but apparently Parker had thought he had somehow been referring to Lyle. "You two have a falling out, or something?"

Parker put on an over dramatised laugh. "Oh hah-fucking-hah!"

Broots snickered to himself, a little scared that Parker was upset with him.

"He's just the fucking same! I can't believe I actually worried over the sick little bastard!"

"Parker, you're not like him. Of course you worried. You're human, there's a difference!"

Parker snorted and patted her tech on the shoulder, sitting down on the chair beside him. "Yeah, a fat lot of good that's ever done me! Making any progress?"

Broots shook his head. "Nope."

Parker sighed. "Well keep trying. You've got a good mind for these things. I'm sure you'll get there in the end, it's just a matter of time."

Broots sighed. "Yeah."

* * *

"So this girl's an Empath?"

"That's what she says."

"And you believe her?"

"Dr. Merchant certainly seems to."

Broots scowled. "Yeah, she's a cow. _Cowus Completeus_, that's her nickname down in Tech Space."

Parker snorted and shook her head. "I'm not gonna let her get away with it, Broots, if I have to shoot her myself. That girl doesn't deserve that, and I intend to put a stop to it. If she was born whilst her mother was working undercover at ISIS then her father must have been a project there also."

Broots frowned. "Mmm…"

* * *

Parker shot her father a glare. "I don't wanna go anywhere near that little prick."

Mr. Parker sighed disappointedly. "He's your brother, Angel, and I want you to go and visit him."

"I said no, Daddy! What more is there to discu-"

Mr. Parker held up a hand, cutting her off. "You will go and see your brother, Angel. He is needed back home. I want you to bring him back. I've had a few words with that doctor and he's going to be transferred to Grace Miller officially."

"Needed for what?" Parker scowled, narrowing her eyes.

"That, Angel, is none of your business."

Parker growled. "He's my brother, and I don't trust him! I want to know what you intend to assign him to, and then I'll think about going up to visit him."

Mr. Parker sighed. "The whole thing has already been sorted out, Angel. And contrary to popular belief, I do not know what the Triumvirate intend to put him to."

Parker snorted. "The Triumvirate? What the fuck have the Triumvirate have to do with this?"

Mr. Parker sighed again, making a habit of it now. "Your brother is, or was, employed under the Triumvirate, not the Centre."

"What?"

Mr. Parker waved his hand about. "It is of little concern, Angel."

Parker stood her ground. "No, it isn't! I want to know why the Hell he is working for them?"

"They didn't say."

His daughter narrowed her eyes. "But?"

"But, apparently he's an operative of some sort."

Parker snorted. "What level?"

"Seven, I think he said."

Parker fell back in her chair. "How could you not tell me this before?"

"I didn't know this before!"

Parker scowled. "Who said, Daddy? Who told you?"

Mr. Parker sighed. "Jarod."

Parker laughed. "Why am I not surprised?"

Mr. Parker frowned. "So, you're telling me he didn't ring you and tell you also?"

"Fuck, no! Daddy, I haven't heard from the rat in four years!"

Her father's frown deepened considerably. "Jarod is up to something, I can feel it."

Parker snorted. "Daddy, Jarod is always up to something. That's what he was trained for, don't you remember?"

Mr. Parker tapped his fingers on the table. "Yes, all too vividly." Mr. Parker watched his daughter for a moment. "There is something interesting he told me though."

"Oh?"

"Yes, he said this Bowman-"

Parker scowled. "The psychopath!"

"Yes, well, he said he worked for the CIA, said his job as a-"

"Banker!"

"Yes, banker. Well, he said that was just a front for his duties for the CIA. Rather curious, if you ask me."

"And?"

"Well I don't know. That's what I'm wondering." He sighed. "Miss Merchant-"

"That conniving little bitch!"

Mr. Parker cleared his throat. "Dr. Merchant… indicated that your brother might have been of some value to the CIA in the past. I think the Triumvirate want him back before the CIA can get their hands on him."

Parker laughed aloofly. "What would the CIA want my brother?"

Mr. Parker scratched the side of his face impulsively. "The, um- The Triumvirate believe the government has developed a sort of program themselves, for gifted individuals."

Parker snorted raucously, eyeing her father as though she thought him ill or insane or both. "My brother is not gifted, he's just crazy!"

Mr. Parker sighed. "I've never told you this before, Angel, but when your brother was born, he, he wasn't quite the same as you. We have people who can tell these things. He had some sort of brain-damage and- All I'm saying is, an autistic kid would have been too much for Catherine to handle. So I had him sent away."

Parker stared at her father in shock. "_I_ was too much for my mother to handle! Why do you think I spent the first five years of my life practically as the Raineses second daughter? Sent him where, Daddy?"

Mr. Parker flinched at his daughter's tone of voice. "Africa."

"What the Hell could possess you to send a baby to Africa?"

Mr. Parker flinched again. "They said he wasn't like the rest of us, Angel. They said they could fix him, make him normal again."

Parker snorted hysterically. "And you believed them?"

"At first."

"But?"

"But then, it turned out that he had the gene and they had put him on some sort of program and that was going well, so what could I do?"

Parker blinked. "What… could you do? Are you fucking mad! You let them use your own kid as a guineapig?"

Mr. Parker's flinch had now become rather frequent. "Angel, it was making good for us. I thought, well, what harm could it do?"

"Just because a person is autistic it doesn't make them any less human, Daddy!"

Mr. Parker sighed immensely. "I know that. But it wasn't autism exactly. That is just the diagnosis that fit best."

"Then what was it?" Parker stormed.

"His neurological pathways are much more advanced than our own. He- there are far too many connections to be normal. They said that if they could foster this pattern, they could potentially do great things. And doesn't that make it worthwhile, the chance to do great things for humankind?"

"But they don't, Daddy! We don't!"

"Angel, do calm down."

"So you're saying my brother's some sort of mutant?"

Mr. Parker shook his head. "No. Angel, I would never say that. I just think that when my idiot brother stole him from Africa and sent him off to live in the big bad world, some bad people found out about how special he was and used that to help themselves."

"Special?"

"Yes, Angel, special. Your brother is special, the only problem being, he seems to have learnt to control to a certain degree, how much of his brain is active at any one time. Miss Merchant believes this is why he formed several different personalities in the first place. You see, Bobby was much more perceptive than Lyle."

Parker shook her head. "They just want him back so they can use him, don't they! And you're just going to go along with this because it makes good for you!"

"Angel, you have to calm down! Would you rather they took Kate instead?"

Parker stood up out of her chair and launched herself at her father. "You leave my daughter out of this!"

Mr. Parker sighed and shot his daughter a little frown.

Parker sat back down, but continued to glare.

"Angel, this has nothing to do with me. I'm just making the best out of a bad situation. The whole thing is out of my hands. I have no influence over the Triumvirate, nor the High Chairman of the Centre Corporation. I just run a small branch in Blue Cove, for God Sake! I'm not Superman! I can't control what they decide and don't decide to do! You should understand as well as I do, the situation here Angel!"

"So what, it's either the CIA or the Centre?"

"That's about all the choice there is, Angel!"

Parker huffed. "Fuck this!"

Mr. Parker sighed. "My sentiments exactly. It's not a nice game, Angel, but it's a game we must play. And remember, only the strong survive. This game holds no sway for human sentiment. Humanity makes us weak, Angel, and it must be purged, or else we must be purged in its place. You are not weak, Angel, remember that! You're a Parker, after all, and this is what we're born for, you'd think it would come all to easily for us, but I'm afraid, one gets to an age-" He sighed. "I never had any problem with being a Parker, Angel, but now, you see, I have this problem with not knowing where to begin being a human being either. Don't ever let them see your weakness, Angel, don't ever let them see that you're not strong, but don't ever let them take that away from you, because one day, you may just need it."

* * *

"Daddy?"

"Yes, Angel."

"What did they say it was little brother was?"

"They didn't."

"So he's a Pretender."

"I would assume so."

"And what about me?"

Mr. Parker sighed. "You, Angel, are perfect."

"So I'm not a mutant freak then?"

"No, Angel, you're not a mutant fr- You're not like your brother, no."

"Daddy?"

"Yes, Angel?"

"Can I have a hug?"

"Of course."

"Thank you, Daddy."


	13. Chapter 13

Parker rounded the corner to her the ward her brother was staying on and slowed down. So he was special. She almost felt jealous. She had expected her daddy to tell her that Lyle wasn't his son in actual fact, and that Angel was different because he had been her father for so long and she his daughter, but he hadn't, and now she was a little upset.

Just because her brother was special now Daddy forgot all about her. She was special too. She was his daughter.

* * *

Lyle was sitting on his bed watching the window where for once it was not raining. Parker came and sat down on the end of his bed. "I heard you were special, so I got you a present," she told him, holding out the box of chocolates she had bought for him and wrapped up in pretty little paper with a ribbon.

"I'm not allowed chocolate," was all he said.

Parker smiled. "Because of your stupid diet? Well who's going to know if you don't tell them?"

"No, because it'll put me in a coma again."

Parker frowned, struggling to see the logic in this.

"I have diabetes, Parker. I don't eat chocolate."

Parker blinked. "Diabetes?" She sighed. Ben had diabetes; that was why he always had all of that disgusting sugar-free cordial and he never drank alcohol. But then again, Parker was used to it, her Daddy didn't either. He just couldn't handle his alcohol. One drink and he was on the floor.

"Yeah, funny, isn't it?"

Parker frowned. "No."

Lyle snorted, still watching the window.

"What are you looking for?" Lyle didn't reply so she sighed and tried a different tack. "Where's that nurse of yours?"

"She went home."

"Why?"

"I didn't ask."

"Why not?"

"Because it wasn't my place."

Parker grinned. "Then how do you know where she went?"

"Where else to do you think she would have gone? The moon?"

Parker snickered. "To see her boyfriend."

"She doesn't have a boyfriend."

"What, did he dump her?" she asked incredulously.

"Don't know, don't want to know."

Parker snorted. "Sure, sure, little brother."

"How's the girl?"

"Kate?" Parker asked, uncertain.

"Morgana."

"You- How."

"We met."

Parker scowled suddenly, turning on her brother viciously. "If you hurt her-"

"She's not dead, is she?"

"You stupid prick!" Parker scowled, grabbing her brother by the front of his clothes.

"I asked you how she was, now are you going to answer me or not?"

"No!"

Lyle sighed, looking away from his sister. "Well then, this conversation is over, we've nothing further to discuss." He sighed again. "Now if you'd please let go of me, I could get up and we could go to that doctor's office and tell him I'm going home."

"Who told you?"

"You did."

"I did no such thing!"

Lyle sighed. "Of course you didn't. My mistake. I do apologise, but I believe you just as good as confirmed my suspicions by asking to know who told me, don't you agree?"

Parker scowled. "I'm on to you, Lyle! Just you remember that!"

"I will, tah."

Parker scowled again. "Don't you send me up!"

"No."

* * *

"This wife of yours, her name was Ling right?"

"Your point being?"

"Tell me about her."

"Tell you what?"

Parker looked across at her brother. "Anything. Just something. Was she pretty? What kind of things was she good at? You know, just things."

"She's dead."

"I know that part. Tell me something I don't know, which is just about everything else. Ling, what is that, like, Chinese?"

"Something like that."

Parker frowned, looking away from the road and across to her brother. "Was she pretty?"

"Enough."

"Why'd you kill her?"

He snorted. "Just got bored of her, I guess."

Parker rolled her eyes. "That's not an excuse to kill anyone, you sick fuck!"

"What else would you have had me do with her?"

"You're the one that married her!"

Lyle shrugged. "Momentary lapse of judgement."

"Did you love her?"

"No."

"Then why'd you marry her?"

"It was something to do."

Parker scoffed. "Didn't you go to church?"

"Mmm-hmm. Every Sunday morning and Monday afternoon."

"You're a real piece of work, you know that?"

"I know that."

Parker nodded. "Good. Cos one day, when the vultures are done with you, I'm gonna kill you."

"That's something nice to look forward to."

Parker snickered. "Yeah!" She watched a sign flash past. "What was she like, then?"

"Who?"

"Your wife, you psychopath!"

"Sociopath."

"Who gives a fuck, you're a sick puppy, what's the fucking difference! What was she like, your wife?"

"She was short, she liked Disney, and her hair was a disaster."

Parker snickered loudly. "And you would know about hair, how, little pretty boy?"

"My mother was a hairdresser in town."

"Mother?" Parker asked incredulously.

"Martha Bowman."

"I see," Parker sneered. Some mother she had turned out to be.

"So you know all about hairdressing?"

"I know enough."

"Well ain't that spec'! Was she a good wife?"

"I guess. She could cook – sort of – and clean and she liked looking after little things."

"Little things?" Parker asked, raising her eyes brows.

"Yeah, like if a moth got caught inside and wanted to go out she would catch it and take it out."

"She liked bugs? Ewww! She didn't make grasshopper soup, did she?"

"No."

"You can thank your lucky stars for that!"

"Why? Grasshoppers are good for protein."

Parker scrunched up her nose. "Ewww! That's disgusting!"

"Well, they're as good as worms if you've nothing else."

Parker shook her head. "No, no. Stop talking about bugs unless you want me to crash the car."

Lyle shrugged.

"Anyway, that's not what I meant. I meant was she a good wife in the other way."

"Other… way?"

"Yeah, you know, was she pleasing, as in pleasure?"

"She used to sing all of those stupid little songs from the cartoons she had seen."

Parker narrowed her eyes. "Avoiding the question."

"It's none of your business really," her brother told her.

Parker scoffed. "Why not? You know all about mine!"

"That's because Green is so good at keeping his little mouth shut."

Parker laughed. "Don't you blame Sydney for this! You know perfectly well it isn't Sydney's fault you know all about every single boy I've ever had."

"I wouldn't say every single one."

"I would!"

Lyle sniggered under his breath. "Hmm!"

"You're sick!" Parker spat.

"So you keep telling me." He sighed. "Did I ever tell you I knew about you and Jarod?"

Parker made an amused little huff. "There is no me and Jarod!"

Lyle snorted. "How old were you then? Eleven? Twelve?"

Parker took her hand off the steering wheel and punched her brother. "You fucking sick fuck!"

Her brother snorted again, apparently amused. "Don't worry, I won't tell Sydney, if that's what you think."

Parker scowled. "You better not!" She switched the radio on and found some afternoon talk show. "So what about that mother of yours? Martha? You ever do her?"

Lyle shot his sister a disgusted look.

"You didn't? Come now, you can be honest with _big sis-ter_!" She glanced across at her brother.

Lyle didn't look around at her, just continued watching the road, fingering the wooden beads on the bracelet on his right wrist.

* * *

"You need a haircut yourself," Parker informed her brother. It was a few moments before she looked around at her brother, turning away with a roll of her eyes. Then she blinked and turned back to see her brother with his head rested on the window, watching the road with hollow eyes. But his silence wasn't what had her worried.

She seriously began to wonder if she was somehow hallucinating, but when she looked again a minute later, the tears were still there and she felt suddenly as though she had found herself in the middle of a vast room of nothing, a vacant scared feeling inside her chest. So she went back to watching the road, every now and again catching a snippet of that stupid talk show as her attention slackened. She would just pretend she hadn't seen anything at all.

She hadn't the faintest idea why her brother had been crying in the first place, what he had been thinking at the time, but that hardly seemed to exact into the equation. She felt somehow damaged for having seen it. She didn't even know if they were fake, which in all honesty they must have been because sociopaths didn't have feelings, she had heard that, and she had also heard that her brother was a trained Pretender. She was being terribly silly, she knew that, but she just had this odd feeling.

Lyle sniffed suddenly, startling his sister, and straightened up in his seat. "I'm sorry, and you're right, I do need a haircut."

Parker pretended as though she had no idea what he was talking about. "Sorry for what?"

"For making you feel that way."

Parker whipped around so fast she could have broken her neck. "What the fuck are you talking about?"

"I sometimes forget myself, and for that I apologise."

Parker shook her head. "You're talking shit, little brother!"

"Daddy told you I was a Pretender, I realise that Parker, but I'm afraid he was wrong. I'm not a Pretender, but rather an Empath. So you see, I am sorry if I made you feel bad. It was not my intention."

It took Parker all of three seconds to take in what her brother had said, but then she slammed her foot on the brakes and stopped clean in the middle of the road and whipped out her gun, training it on her brother's head. "You make me sick!"

It was all so clear to her now, so terribly obvious that she felt an idiot for not realising it before. It was her brother – her own fucking brother! – who had finally done away with her best-friend! And it was her brother whom Morgana had gone to see at that hospital because he was her father!

And then a thought struck her and she changed her mind. "You best hope you're worth it!" she spat, "because we're going to make an exchange."

Lyle simply stared back into her eyes and didn't breathe a word, and as much as she wanted to kill him, Parker replaced her gun in its holster and started the car up again.


	14. Chapter 14

_2008_

'08 was the year Kate started in primary. Watching her baby girl walk away from her, Parker couldn't believe she was still breathing.

The little girl was not scared even a jot, simply terribly excited, but Parker thought that her heart may fail her as soon as her little girl disappeared into that classroom.

It was lucky Sam was standing beside her with his arms around her, because she thought that had he not been there, she simply would have fainted. She made to run inside and snatch up her baby and never let her out of her sight again, but Sam took a firm hold on her waist and dragged her back, turning her to him and kissing her so that she forgot all about Kate. When he pulled away, Parker had the most horrible glare upon her face, but Sam simply laughed and took her hand, leading her back to the car.

* * *

On the evening of her first day at school, as she was tucking Kate into bed at night, Parker sat down and kissed her daughter's head and asked if she had made any friends. Kate nodded and explained that he was a boy and that he had a funny name. Parker smiled and assured Kate that she would make many more friends still, and maybe even some girl friends.

* * *

Sam was away at a conference on the day on the prep circus. Parker, along with Deb, Morgana and a boy named Danny (Deb's boyfriend, who worked in an ice-cream van) arrived at ten, the show due to start at ten-thirty.

Parker was sitting on a blue plastic chair in the school library when she recognised a familiar face. Charlotte Fulton stood by the door, looking a little lost.

The forty-five year old was dressed in a pair of faded jeans with patches of strawberry-patterned material, the hems turned up, over which she wore a tight short-sleeved red check shirt. Her hair was cut in a boyish fashion so that it framed her face in a spherical manner, and her eyelids shone faintly smoky, her lips done simple with balm. As to what Charlotte Fulton was doing there, she was quite in the dark. She hadn't so much as approached the woman in almost five years.

Across the room, the preps filed in dressed all in their costumes, their teacher in the lead. Parker spotted Kate and waved. Kate saw her mother waving and reciprocated, waving back to her mother frantically with both hands. A little boy following Kate grabbed her from behind and hugged her.

Parker smiled warmly to her daughter, who was now having difficulty waving with the boy holding her arms pinned to her sides, and made a note of the boy. He had a strawberry snap clip in his hair, which struck Parker as plain creepy, and was how she might have mistook him for a girl if her Perception hadn't told her otherwise. Her Perception was weak, but it still existed, as a separate from her Inner Sense, the Voices that sometimes spoke to her. Perception was an aptitude for picking up on vibrations and feelings, and to the best of her knowledge, it was the only thing common to all individuals with the gene regardless of its expression, whether it be Pretender, Healer or Empath.

Of all the expressions of the gene, Perception was the weakest in Pretenders, and in some it never fully established itself, simply remained dormant their whole lives.

Parker never talked with Sam about these things, just as she never talked with him about his own abilities; for ever since she was seven, she had known there to be something terribly wrong with his father. She sometimes remembered bits and pieces of her mother, how she had cut herself but yet there was never any scars, how – once in Maine visiting Ben – she had drowned herself in the lake.

Ben, Parker recalled, had been almost too calm as though in shock. William had brought Catherine down to stay with Ben for some reason that remained unexplained, and Parker had never been able to pluck up the courage to ring Ben and ask how William had even known about him and Cat.

* * *

Kate and the boy who had grabbed her turned out to be mimes. The little boy fell over when they were playing imaginary tug-of-war, straight on his bum, and a lot of the other children along with some of the parents laughed. The boy bounced back up just as Kate was about to run over and pull him to his feet.

By lunch the circus was over and the preps and their parents were invited to stay for a barbeque lunch. Parker spotted Charlotte sitting with the boy from her daughter's mime act and walked over, Kate sipping her cordial at her heels. Charlotte was eating a hamburger and coleslaw sandwich at one of the plastic chairs, the boy sitting next to her, eating grapes.

Parker waved. "Hi! Don't you work at the Centre? It's just that I've seen you around."

Charlotte looked up at Parker, picking a bit of chewy lolly out of her son's hair. "Yeah, I work in Med Space," Charlotte told her cheerfully, holding out a hand for her to shake.

Parker shook the younger woman's hand, introducing herself. "Melanie Parker-Raines."

Charlotte's smile seemed to fade a little but she hitched it back in time. "Charlotte Fulton."

Parker grinned. "This is so great! Both our children in the same grade!"

"You're disgusting, Julius!" Kate told the boy.

"Oh, I'm sorry! This is my son, Julius," Charlotte beamed, patting the youngster on the head.

"Kate," Parker replied back, nodding to her daughter.

Kate had sat down in a chair next to Julius's and the pair were now having a contest on who could fit the most grapes in their mouth. It looked as though Parker had finally met Kate's little friend.

"Your mom's a bit hot," Kate told Julius, who promptly choked on his grapes and had his mother in tears from laughing, leaning over to pat him on the back gently.

* * *

"A job? You call that drudgery a profession? I say slavery, my dear man!" Alice exclaimed, passing a nineteen-year-old William a piece of tea cake. Alice no longer wondered about William. He was an odd fellow, she knew, but he was someone with which to converse, and she realised, being dead, it was not everyday she got to talk to someone as terribly interesting as an undead.

Of course, there was nothing mentioned in the Scriptures he had taken from T-Corp as a young boy to indicate that such a thing might happen, simply that Healers – whatever they might be – lived longer lives than other humans and were not often sick.

700 years he had said, and Alice had laughed. She would have said he was out of his mind, loopy, demonically possessed – heck, she wouldn't even have believed him the same person but for that he felt the same. As one of the dead, she liked to think herself perceptive to these sort of things, but for all she knew, it was just the energy signature she was picking up on and had nothing to do with spirits or souls.

William rolled his eyes, rather eerily blue now for one of such a young apparent age, and proceeded in explanation of his occupation. "Well you hardly expect me to announce myself a Neuro-surgeon and apply for a position at Grace, do you now?"

Alice sniffed in a snobbish manner. "Anything would be better than a dingy supermarket!"

"It isn't dingy," the young man told her. "It's rather sterile in reality."

Alice narrowed her eyes and gave her chin a little upward toss as though to say she was onto him and his compulsive lying. "You're a doctor, for God's Sake, man! They are two completely different things!"

William sighed. "I _was_ a psychiatrist. I'm not anymore. _End of story,_" he told her in French.

"You're not actually trying to speak French, are you?" the girl asked, incredulous.

"Oh no!" the young man assured her.

Alice narrowed her eyes in scepticism. "I'm watching you!"

"Not inappropriately, I hope?"

Alice snorted, shaking her head with an accusing finger pointed in his direction. "You, young man, are depraved!"

William sighed despairingly. "Yep!"

Alice stuck her tongue out at him.

* * *

Emily turned over in bed and watched Ethan sleeping. Mo lay on the bed by the window, sleeping off his hangover.

The week previous had been Zoe's birthday, and the whole family had gone bowling and then to dinner at a family restaurant. Mo, who held no special affection for Zoe, had been annoyed when Jarod had continuously let Zoe win in the bowling.

But it had only gotten worse when Jarod had proposed to her later. The reason they were holed up in some dingy little motel room in the middle of God-Knows-Where, was a little more complicated and had mostly to do with Emily.

Margaret, not having been a big fan of Zoe in the early days of their meeting, had now taken to the girl as though she were her own daughter, seeing as her son had chosen her as his bride, and had quite forgotten her own daughter.

Emily had never been quite enough. Female and with no extraordinary intelligence. She was no replacement for Margaret's baby boys and Margaret thought it cruel that the girl should think herself worthy of such affection only for that she was the only remaining child. She wanted it all and never gave any back. As if Harmony wasn't already enough of a burden? She worked her fingers to the bone to support the two of them and they never paid her any heed. The woman was temperamental, forgetful; the girl raucous and unruly.

Emily had known from the time her mother had found her in police detainment, a teenage runaway, and knocked-up to boot, that this was one rip she would never be able to mend.

She had woken five days after her baby's birth to find the child gone and her mother had sent him away.

On her eighteenth birthday she was packed off into a job at a shopping complex, cleaning detail, and had spent half a year in this job to please her mother, before she decided that she wanted to become a nurse, in hopes of finding her baby boy and reclaiming him. She didn't care if she had to abduct him, he deserved to be with his mother and his mother with him.

She had tried so hard not to hate her mother for sending Lyle away, for that was what she had named him, had tried to convince herself that her mother had only had her child and grandchild's best interests at heart, but she woke so many mornings with such a gaping emptiness inside that when the day was done and night was come she never wanted to open her eyes and wake again.

She worked her hardest, hoping that the work would drive all thought of heartache from her mind for a while, but it never worked. No matter how hard she worked, her mother had nothing but disdain for her. She would go to university and make something of herself, she told her mother proudly. The woman only scoffed and left the room, to make tea, she said. She was not her brothers. She would amount to nothing. She could only amount to nothing. They had not come for her, after all.

Charles, himself, had been so disappointed with the girl that he had left, but he had left his wife too.

The girl only reminded her of all she had lost, but still she tried so hard to be a mother to the child. The child had grown up to be nothing but a disappointment. Boarding school had only served to cause her to rebel more than ever. Margaret had spent ten years working herself into the ground to be able to pay for a decent education for her baby girl once she reached secondary level, but the girl had thrown it all in her face, all her efforts trampled.

Emily got to studying nights, working days, and no matter how much she didn't want to get out of bed some days for the tiredness she felt, she knew she would never give up and just resign her child to his Fate. She hardly saw her mother or Harmony for the study, but somehow it helped her to forget all the pain held within her young heart.

She worked on nursing for six years before she realised that she could not bring herself to steal the child away from his family. They would be all that he had known and she was damned if she would hurt her baby that way. If he hated her for it later, that was the sacrifice she had to make.

At 25 she quit nursing and took up university again, determined to once and for all prove to her mother that she did exist. She would make something of herself. She would become a reporter. She would do something for the world. She would make her parents proud.

She put her fanciful childhood ideals aside, of saving the Earth, and focussed on her studies.

She made a friend once, but then she'd gone and scared her away when she'd kissed her on the mouth. She brought boys home for her mother to meet, as though thinking she could make it up to her mother, although she was sure her mother didn't know the reason her friend and her no longer talked. She tried so hard to like them, but she always ended up drinking too much and passing out on the floor.

She gave up on that endeavour and partied too much. Her mother came to wake her one morning, and even she could not dispute that which she saw. She refused to speak to her daughter for six months. Emily moved out and rung only to speak to Harmony. Her mother never picked up the phone, and beside, the girl would only have hung up, had she.

When she turned 27 in 1996, Emily took to writing romance under the name Courtney McCarty, where girls liked boys and girls never liked other girls. Her mother was hardly approving of this, but she seemed somehow consoled, her consolation extending to three or four words a week.

She got a small job working for a newspaper. Her mother bought the paper in the off-chance one of her daughter's articles would appear, and when they did, she cut them neatly out and pasted them into a pretty polka dot scrapbook she had bought at the newsagents. Emily got promoted and Margaret wrote her a congratulations card. The girl shortened Courtney to Kurt and the card was never sent.

Emily woke up one morning curious and thought that if she could bring her family back together, everything could be better, just as it was meant to. She found out about a corporation named the Centre located out of Blue Cove, Delaware. She felt sick and realised she had to find her brothers. She packed up her things and left in the middle of the night. Her mother got a letter in the mail two days later and Harmony cried for two days.

Margaret sat the woman down and told her that she was not helping anyone, least of all that girl, by sulking. Harmony got to writing romance again and found consolation in the loves and lives of her characters.

Emily got herself thrown out a window and somehow managed to bring her family together. But then there was Jarod and Margaret knew her baby had come home. Emily finally met her father, with whom she remembered having three-hour phone conservations as an eight-year-old. She met Mo, her eldest brother's clone, unnatural in his mother's eyes, and Ethan, the child of her father and another woman who heard voices that told him to do bad things. Emily took the two in and introduced them to Harmony. She wanted to be strong, but she realised she was a little scared.

Ethan tried to reassure her and Mo bought her pretty stuffed things, perfume and chocolates. They read magazines together and Mo told stupid jokes. They read Harmony's romance novels and took Harmony ice-skating and bowling. They talked about love and things from their past. Emily found herself a little scared of Mo, of her father, Jarod, but she knew there was no logical reason for it. She tried to ignore it and woke up in the middle of the night in the dark and couldn't get back to sleep.

She spent her hours hating Lyle Parker and found a point of common interest with her two friends. The three spent whole evenings in effort to dig up the secrets surrounding Ethan's mother, Catherine Parker, sure this one woman was somehow they key to it all. Emily leant Japanese and wrote Lyle hate-mail. She swapped sleeping for researching, and pretended she was fine.

Ethan got up one night, unable to sleep for worry, and tried to convince Emily to get some sleep. Emily dismissed his worry and persuaded him to dance with her, putting Elvis on over the stereo. Ethan was very bad at dancing and Emily laughed. Emily finally wore herself out and fell asleep at five in the morning. Ethan took her to bed and lay down beside her. They played soccer and Emily showed them how to pole dance, having once worked as a pole dancer part-time. And that was how Ethan and Mo knew that they had to protect their sister.

* * *

"Ethan?"

Ethan woke to darkness and a scared voice. He blinked in the depressing heat.

"Ethan?"

Mo appeared beside him.

"Mo?"

"I can't find her!" Mo rambled.

Ethan sat abruptly and realised that Emily was indeed missing. He jumped off the bed and walked to the window, lifting the window easily. The latch had been left unlocked.

"Shit!" Mo swore loudly, upset with himself.

Ethan turned to Mo, worried. They both knew what the other was thinking, it went unsaid. Two years ago she had run away. She had been back for no more than six months.

Mo started to stuff all of Ethan's things back into his cardboard suitcase. He wasn't going to let her go this time. "She isn't safe," he protested to the silence.

Ethan understood. She was his sister, his friend. He would never forgive himself if something happened to her. Some secrets went too deep. Both Ethan and Mo knew this. They had their own. Ethan placed a hand on the younger man's arm. "Blue Cove, Delaware."

Mo wanted to smack Ethan, but then, Ethan had the alien antennae. "Why?" he demanded angrily.

"Catherine didn't say."

Mo refrained from insulting Ethan's deceased mother in front of him, and snatched up his own things and headed for the door. Ethan followed the younger man out of the room.

* * *

Mo was tired and the confines of the bus made him claustrophobic. He rubbed his face and leant his head against the cold glass.

Ethan was not consoled by the boy's morbid mood. Mo was cheap and obnoxious and sweet and silly, and a whole lot of things beside: drunk, angry, loud, flirty, childish... the list went on. But the one thing that was not Mo was depressed. A song played over the radio and Ethan wanted someone to hug. Mo would have sung along, and if he knew none of the words, he made new ones up. The boy was perfectly silent. Ethan ignored his wobbling lip and closed his eyes, tired himself.

* * *

(FLASHBACK)

1989 was the year Ethan turned eighteen, and the year Ethan first met his half-brother, Lyle. Lyle, having left Canada in '87, had taken up in the Air Force for two years. He was back working for the Centre in '89 and was assigned to Field.

Ethan's first impression of his half-brother was a strong scepticism that this twenty-something was a psychologist as he said. There was a time that he thought the man perpetually drunk, but then he couldn't wake him, and the attending doctor said that diabetes was nothing to worry about if managed properly. Ethan listened to Lyle's heavy metal and wondered how he could stand it.

He was back from the hospital the following day, but then he had an older man with him who had introduced himself as Dr. Raines.

Ethan was unsure of this Raines. And then when he heard Lyle had been given an active transfer and this Raines was going to be looking after him instead, he was scared. He didn't like this new doctor.

He had not been at all consoled by his half-brother's reassuring smile, but then he had felt a little calmer with the hug, until the point Lyle reached the door and he didn't want him to go because he knew he wouldn't come back the same. He didn't do anything, though, never even said anything, because what good were the words of a crazy boy.

* * *

Ethan remembered a story Lyle had once told him when Ethan had been reluctant to talk. Ethan didn't like to talk to people who weren't his family, and he didn't like to remember the woman with the pretty brown eyes and fair curls. She was gone now, and he would have been upset to think on her, so he didn't.

"I knew a boy once, and he didn't like to talk much either, didn't like to do much of anything that wasn't watching. Watching was his favourite thing of all to do in the whole wide world. Watching wasn't like talking, talking meant offering something of oneself up to the exchange, meant articulating that which one felt. He had spent much time in observation of this talking, leant the things that went along with certain moods, feelings evoked, unspoken, but he was scared. What if he said something that caused them to dislike him?"

"So he stayed huddled in his own little world, and whenever someone should come to take him from the place in which he felt safe, he would throw the most horrible fit as though he were a wild animal and not in fact human, for humans saw themselves above other animals, saw themselves as tamed and civilised. And then he had to go again even though he didn't want to because he had grown used to this new set of humans. He knew then that he would only go on this way for the longest time, and he knew too that if he never came out and volunteered a part of himself he could go on lying to himself, go on telling himself that those other people couldn't hurt him, all the while knowing that it was only himself who was causing the hurt. Nobody would truly know what he felt or thought if he did not say so, because they could not gauge all by just one glance."

"And there at once was too much and it confused the child, but the child never gave up on his mission, because now he was determined, and he knew he would be lonely if he were to go back to that place again. And if he thought on it, if he thought on those feelings and thoughts he discerned as his own, he realised he was lonely, and if he missed just one thing, one person, he knew he had to do something to make him forget that something or someone, had to take something to replace that. You see, he did not understand yet why one could not simply replace a hole in the heart with some new object of affection as one might replace parts on an engine.

"So you see, he was pleased for a time, or as pleased as he knew how to be, and he never wanted to think anything displeasing of these people who had kept him, because he loved them and he just wanted them to love him back the way families were meant to love each other." Lyle looked up into Ethan's eyes suddenly as though awaiting comment, but Ethan had none, so Lyle went on.

"You are the only one who can speak for you, little one. The doctor can give you pills, but he cannot feel your pain. The preacher can give you forgiveness, but he cannot know your thoughts. You can sit there without any words, but how will I know you if you never give me a chance. Whether it end in heartache, whether it end in happiness, whether it end in nothing at all, it is the way of everything. You see, society expects certain things of us, and we can listen and take note, but we are all unique and society is so big, it cannot know us all, so we must shout it out, and then perhaps another someone will shout back and that is how we will truly know how it is acceptable for us to be."

"You don't have to tell me one thing, you don't have to say anything at all, but I will just go on guessing and assuming in all the wrong directions and this might make you unhappy because I know it would make me unhappy to be mis-taken."

Of course, after that, Ethan just had to say something, if only for that he would not have to listen to Lyle going on and on, because he seemed to like to do that.

(END OF FLASHBACK)

* * *

Ethan awoke with a jolt and straightened. Mo was watching the world slip by in a constant stream of endless blur for every once in a while they would come to a standstill and a glimpse would be caught before it to joined the blur and was lost.

Ethan tapped his shoe in time with the song over the radio. Lyle had always been very loud and opinionated. In some silly way, Ethan realised Mo reminded him of Lyle. It sort of made him smile to imagine the kind of child Lyle had been, and imagined him to be a very difficult one. He remembered the time Lyle had got on to thinking he could sing.

That was about their second session, and Ethan was reluctant to talk, but then he had decided he might just say a little something, anything to shut Lyle up, because he really was not made for singing. Of course, then, Ethan had fallen into that trap, _"If you can do it so much better…"_, and although he really didn't want to be singing, he did somehow want to prove that he could to sing. But then Lyle had started on giggling and Ethan had gone off in a huff, and he had even told his parents so. His mother had frowned, and his father had laughed. _"What on Earth were you singing for in the first boy?"_ Ethan had confused himself a little then, but then, it wasn't his fault. _"It wasn't me who started it!"_ His mother had agreed and his father had shaken his head.

Ethan snorted to himself, and Mo turned to him with a funny look. "Um, I was just remembering something stupid," Ethan told the youngster.

Mo frowned, and then he got a little of that old sparkle in his eye, as in anticipation.

Ethan couldn't very well blurt that out, so he had to think quick, because he didn't want to miss this one chance to cheer his friend up. "Just, um- I was in this stupid school play. I must have been about nine – yeah, nine – and anyway, I got stuck as a rabbit. It was just so silly. My mom looked so proud, sitting out there in the audience, and I hoped to God she wouldn't turn and start on: "That's my boy". It was rather embarrassing for me at that age. I simply couldn't understand what there was to be happy for. I mean, I had tried, but then I just kept thinking- I was dressed up as a frigging bunny rabbit, for goodness sake! What was wrong with that woman?"

Mo smiled kindly, because he knew that woman to be deceased and he knew too that Ethan must have missed her.

Ethan smiled in reminisce, and then he thought that there was another person he missed. He turned to Mo with sadness and confusion in his eyes, and Mo frowned sadly.

"We're going to get her back," Mo assured him.

Ethan nodded and wondered how he had gone from the one comforting to the one being comforted. Life was funny like that sometimes, it turned out in all the wrong directions, but then, it wasn't so bad after all, except that it was.

* * *

"Someday I'll wish upon a star, and wake up where the clouds are far, behind me. Where troubles melt like lemon drops…"

* * *

Parker left Kate watching cartoons and strolled down the hall to answer the door, cordless phone wedged between her shoulder and cheek. "Yeah, hold on, Sam. There's someone at the door. I've got to get this. Five minutes, I promise, honey." She pulled the door open and her wavering attention focussed.

"Dani?"

And then she noticed that the girl was soaking wet because it had rained that morning, and she had likely walked all the way from the train station. She took the girl by the shoulders, phone in hand, and led her inside, nudging the door shut with the back of her shoe.

* * *

Dani sat shivering at the kitchen table, blanket clutched to her chest. Kate watched her from across the table, impatient. Her mother was making her a hot chocolate with marshmallows, caramel ice-cream topping sauce, cream and mint-flavoured sprinkles.

Parker came up behind Dani and placed a mug of hot coffee in front of her, but the girl was staring into nothingness as though she could see something there, but perhaps she saw nothing at all and the emptiness had captured her in its web and crawled into her heart and eaten it all away.

Parker was quite lost for what to do. She fixed a glaring Kate's hot chocolate and placed the parfait glass before the girl, passing her a tall teaspoon, and sat down beside her daughter with her hot coffee, stirring in her customary three sugars, a habit she conceded she and Sam shared. "Dani?" Parker tried, and the girl looked up with hollow eyes. "Why are you here?" Parker realised it sounded insensitive, but she knew no other way of asking.

"I was looking for someone," she replied glumly.

Parker smiled faintly, inserting a dash of cheerful amusement into her voice. "Well, I'd say you've found someone."

Dani dropped her face to her drink. "No…"


End file.
